Jill from Richfield, Ohio

H A P P Y

B I R T H D A Y

J I L L

Have a wonderful two- (or three or four) day celebration!

, Jill! I never tire of coming to your page to take a look at your gorgeous brood! You are a very fortunate woman!

Happy Birthday, Jill!
Enjoy your day(s)

Happy birthday Jill! I hope your children spoil you with wonderful homemade gifts, and I hope you have a lovely day with your family and friends. Cheers!

dropping in to wish you a very Enjoy your special day, Mary

♪♫♪ Happy Birthday Jill ♫♪♫

Happy Birthday, Jill. I hope your birthday will be filled with happiness and joy. I have been intending to send you a note.. I am from Ohio too. The Akron area. We moved to Tennessee about ten years ago,after my husband retired. Winter weather is much milder here. have a great birthday celebration.

Jill, I'm sure you will have lots of lovely hugs and kisses from your gang. Enjoy your day.

to you,
to you,
to you, dear Jill!!!
to you!
May your day be wongerful with a and lots of

Jill \, hope your day has been wonderful.

Jill. a little late but hope you are still celebrating with your lovely family.

Great Halloween costumes and pumpkins, Jill!

Super Halloween pictures Jill. I bet the kids had a really super night too. Is that you lifting Michael to be a taller giraffe? Take care and stay smiling!

Open calendar, Jill!
Excuse me, I am the one who has been traumatized for the last 37 days. It should be me saying such obscene comments.

Oh, I missed my dear friend.
I have no idea where today went. Crawled out of bed around 8-ish, next thing I knew it is 4:00. Nothing done and I needed a nap. Which lasted 2 hours. Then when I realized the day had flown by, the evening was gone. The plan for tomorrow morning is to spend with my friends and hunt for my address book. Actually, I can get into my old email box if I knew my email box information. I did not know I got a new email box and information.

OH, let me tell you about my cleaning experience. Now, I know I should not do such things, but I have a friend that has a mission to have order in her house hold and my brain cell had this crazy idea that I could too. So Monday, M and I hit this house hard. Floors were swept many, many times, dust bunnies were rearranged, there was scrubbing involved, oh the list goes on.

Well, that brain cell had another thought of dragging out the shop vac to do some powerful sucking, but the machine and M do not get along, so I waited till the family went on their evening ride. Now remember, there was a lot of sweeping done throughoout the day. Allergies and sinus were having a field day, already. Brought out the big sucky machine and ran it for about 15 minutes. So happy and proud of my progress, I turned around and got smacked in the body with a wall of flying particles billowing out of the shop vac cannister.

It was a major disaster, that on Wednesday there was still dust flying through the air. K and M were sick--not home sick, though I did pick K up early from school on Tuesday. There is a thick, thick layer of dust on everything. Dishes, walls, fans...by Thursday when I took my shower I actually felt clean. Talk about a major disaster. I refuse to clean ever again.

I had an insane urge, that I cleaned my room. Actually, I thought of you and how you would so enjoy filling it up. Good luck my friend.

Oh, Jill, Jill, Jill, darling we are on our way to Oaklahoma tomorrow. Will be back on Saturday.

Do you realize that we had penciled in to chat all day on Monday and now the week is over and we still have not chatted?

Anyway, Mike's uncle died and we are heading out Thursday morning. 8 hours in a vehicle with 3 people who do not like to ride in the vehicle, MIL and a man whose driving scares the heck out of me. Oh, joy. Actually, 16 hours, we have to return.
Tonight we have family bonding. K is in our bed and MIL is in K's bed. I really hope that is not how the hotel rooms are going to be. She also suggested we take her car. 3 adults, two car seats, luggage and kid stuff in her little car. We are taking our vehicle.

Please use your power with the higher up and pray for my sanity. I believe my 37 days of exile, is going to a whole lot more fun than the next 48 hours.

Had an extra moment did you?
No, I do not have my address book...yet. And I am not as good of as a friend as you. I do good to remember what my name is on most days, much less an address an email that a mail to several times a day. I just type J and click on the first link.
Weather. No I have not seen local or any other weather since we got csble. I have, however, watched many tear jerker movies and know how to knock off my husband and not get caught. Though if I do get caught, I know how to escape.

ShopVac. Stays inside, though Mike was the last to use it. Which means, I should have checked it before using it.
As, for the many DM's, I have forgotten them all after spending the weekend on a road trip with MIL. Children were perfect. MIL and I clashed and Mike was caught in the middle. Now we were civil, but you felt the tension. Let's just say running head on into a brick wall would have felt a whole lot better.

M's. Be happy he is just taking his shoes and socks off. Be very happy.
As for words. Yes, I am excited that the girl will be speakinkg English soon. BUT, do I really want another yakker? Our newest phase, is "DoItAgain." She says it as one whole word, instead of three.
The day of the funeral, His hieness(?) Philip, (will fill you in on him later) nicely (dripping sarcsism) informed me, that I was more than welcomed to stay at his mother's house or in the cry room at the church, because children were so unpredictable and we did not any interruptions at the funeral. Hehehe, he is a gay pompass tush, who does not tell this mother her children are unrulely. Surprisingly, to me, I kept my Texas temper in check. Which I am glad, because, I found out later what he was comparing my well, behaved children too. What is bad, is that I never met those children, I just heard the horror stories. You and I have prefect children.

I am just highlighting because, I am tired, but not ready for bed.
Thanks so much for getting in touch with Sue for me. It was wonderful meeting her and her family.
I do not plan to move tomorrow. So I fill you box up. But you know how my plans go. Like I had planned to sit here in quiet and catch up on the chatter for the last few days. But Mike, keeps wanting to have verbal conversations. I just spent 3 days, all day and all night with him and he wants to talk, now! I told him to call his mother. He listened to me, now I get to hear him go on and on about all the events of the last few days. Which those two disected on the way home.

How could I leave a big topic. The south end. The cute southend topics have been no problem.

But I have had some episodes, that required major discussions. Though the episode has past, so to speak, the thought of a soft ball size, with a hard ball fell, would be a mild description.

3000 characters and will not let me cut and paste and I cannot send regular emails.

I have opinions about that.

Guess I will put it out here since I cannot copy and paste and I refuse to type it over again.

Part one
Thursday

Started the day really early, considering I did not go to bed until around 2 AM. Then K decided to scream bloody murder in her sleep and it took both Mike and me to wake her up. Then we got her settled back down, the girls took turn until 4, after that the chocolate labs decided to take over outside our window.

While I was painting my face, Mike was packing the girl's bags. That is a whole DM in itself. Anyway, frustration happened, where I said something with a tone. MIL, got mad and told us if we are going to argue the entire time, she would not go. Well, being who I am, told her she is confusing us with her other son and DIL and should not do that. I was polite. Mike said nothing.

I slept all the way through Texas. MIL and Mike chatted and the girls were great, just rode and played in their seats. I woke up in time to admire the scenery of OK. We were driving through a mountain. What I noticed the most, was the color of the soil, burnt red color, beautiful. K thought that was neat too. Two McDonald stops. YUM. We made it to Tulsa in time for the viewing. Why we could not go to the hotel to freshen up and change out of traveling clothes first, I do not know. First, round of introductions, MIL said, 'This is my middle son, Michael and his girls K and M.' Notice anything strange there? The funeral home was an uppity place, I do not think children were expected to be there at anytime. Well, M was soaked, so we went in search of the all glitz restroom that was not child friendly. Way too many breakables in there. Back for more non-introducing Mike's wife. Finally, His Majesty Rodney introduced himself to me. More on him later. The girls had been cooped up all day, so I let the run around as long as they kept the noise level down. After about 30 minutes, I returned them to their father, I was not needed so I went to the lobby. I was never missed. You may notice an attitude there and you are correct. I was not happy with the introduction process.

Part two
We finally, left for the hotel, which His Majesty paid for, which was really nice of him. It was very kind of him to put us up across town and not in a Motel 6. It was fine for a night. Then to find food. My suggestion, find a place that is not in our area. MIL suggest something like Chick-fil-lay(?). We ended up at the Macironi Grill, which I have seen in Texas, but not in our area. Not what I expected. It is an Italian place. It was not cheap, but I did not think it was that expensive, the food was great, along with the service. Of course, MIL did not think so. Mike stayed silent. The girls were happy. Back at the motel, I went to bed and left the girls in his care. I was surprised I actually went to sleep.


Friday

Amazingly, we were all ready, to go to Dorothy's (widow) house, on time. Even had time to spare after getting lost. Though Mike would not admit to being lost, he was still silent. MIL on the other hand was not so quiet. Back seat driver kept saying 'you should have done that or this. I suggested to call Leah (cousin). They came and met us to take us to the house. Right after we got to the house, his majesty Rodney (dead man's son/Mike's cousin) said I was more than welcomed to stay at the house with the unpredictable children (mine were the only children there, besides a 9 year old) or if I so chose to take them to the funeral I could stay in the cry room. We did not want to disrupt the events of the funeral. (You know my Texas temper was on the very warm stage here, but I had control). Went on to be not introduced to more family members and keep Miss Hands out of things that should not be touched, because Mike is too busy talking to help. Thankfully, K hooked up with the 9 year old, so she was occupied. M took care of business, so I was taking her out to the car for a change. The pompous jerk, followed me, offered to get the bag from the car, where I said, it would be better to let her run a little bit.

Part three
The limo's arrived, but the PJ (pompous jerk, did not think about car seats) so we took our vehicle. The family was kept on display before the service began. Then we were lead, to the back of the church, the congregation was asked to stand and face us, while a ritual was performed on the casket. One cousin, who flew in that morning, was throwing a fit because they would not open the casket for her. Then we were paraded down the aisle. The girl's did good through all the songs and prayers, but when the priest started speaking, M decided to keep on singing and banging the books around. If you took them away, she protested in this huge room that had echoes. So off to the cry room we went. We were then put on display again, when they took the casket out, family stood here, while spectators looked on from a different location. The funeral people were very good at keeping us moving, discretely, of course. I never saw so many men rearrange themselves in my life. They took the funeral processesion around the city, at the time, I felt like I was in a parade, but they took the scenic route to avoid road construction.
The graveside service was beautiful. The Marine core did a wonderful job there. M was asleep in the car, when they did the gun salute, I thought for sure she would wake up, but she did not even flinch. Then those people played Tapps, which I now know is worse than hearing The Old Rugged Cross. It is nice to know that my heart can still fill with pride though. Then we were paraded to Pam's house (Daughter of the dead man). Oh, my stars, house is a mild statement. Though we were continuously told that the house was child friendly. White carpet is not child friendly, until I saw the 9 year olds room. I relaxed some after that. This is where I learned a lot of family history.

part four
Family

This is Mike's uncle's family. There was Joe and his wife Dorothy. Joe a life time Marine, and a brilliant business man. He did everything for Dorothy, all she had to worry about is the children, when he was not at home and her job, that she did not have to have, but was very successful at. Their children is PJ Rodney, who lives in Massechutes, CEO of some insurance corporation and a master chef, also gay, which his father never accepted. He also, believed that since his father was gone, he would step in his father's shoes. Pam is the daughter, who came into her money through a settlement, that she got from her husband horrendous death. Hence, the huge house, life time of no worries. Though she has children from heck. The son is a black jack casino person, that believes he owns the casino. He has a long time girlfriend, which he says he will never marry or have children with, because he does not want to bring them into this bad world and have to deal with death. He was strange, but the sister, Leah, now here is a strange one. She was a wild teenager, who got pregnant with Ashley, the 9 year old, then with Joseph, who is 5, met a man that did not want those children, so Leah, dropped them off at Pam's one day and then disappeared. She returned one day, with twins, who are now 3. The 5 year old, or the twins were not allowed to come to the funeral. This is where I heard stories of how unruly they were, so Joseph went to school and the twins were at a sitters for a week. No one talked about the twins and said that Joseph was just too unruly to mess with his schedule. Pam adopted, Ashley and Joseph, who for the entire time we were there, none of them had a word to say to each other. Ashley would actually leave the room if Leah was near by. I don't think that family is as close as they would like for us to believe. I have a feeling that after we left, that entire family scattered.

part five

Dinner that night was just at McAllister's which, Linda said was to die for. I have the driest loaded potato that I have ever had. I think it is one of those places that is good to go to for lunch. That night the girls went to bed with Linda, but by two they were in bed with us. Darn connecting doors.


Saturday

Up, dressed, fed and packed with time to spare before checkout and Sue's arrival. By the time the car was packed up, I still had 15 minutes before our meeting time. MIL wanted to do some shopping so, I told them to just go. She was not happy I was meeting an Internet friend, Mike was not happy about leaving me, but I told them to go. Actually, I don't think MIL was happy I was meeting anyone. Sue and her husband and son arrived a few minutes later. From the moment they entered the lobby till the time we parted we talked. Apparently, her son and husband was used to this because they sat there patiently, for about two and half hours. Mike and the girls and MIL joined us and Sue's husband fell in love with the girls and took up chatting with Mike. MIL and Sue conversed for a while. Then pictures were taken outside, where Sue and I were still talking. Then we packed up, and went on our way. MIL would have preferred to drive straight though, but we have two girls and by the time we got to Texas it was after 7, they needed to eat. We stopped at McAllister's again, so to at least make MIL happy. Poor woman had ulcers in her mouth from the trip. It was 10 when we got to our house, 11 before she got home. She was greeted with a house full of poop. Nephew left the door open and all the dogs made themselves at home for 3 days.

Sick people, you know I do not do sick very well. Happy to hear J did not get a peek at the DM's.
As for the Christmas tree, it has been up for two weeks and redecorated daily since.
I so wish for one week of normalcy, though at the moment, I cannot remember what normal is.

Have you tried the email address I sent you?
Did you recieve an email on you normal address from me? I tried from memory, so wondering.

I am home now. One grunmply at work, one late for school, well, 8 o'clock one finished with her breakfast, now attempting to get mine.

There are thoughts of making plans for the day, but that is as far as it has gotten, thoughts.

You are correct in your assumption, Mike nor my MIL introduced me all weekend.
MIL's prefect world would be, if I did not exist and her precious son was married to her oldest son's ex wife. There were a few times when I heard "Oh you must be Janet." Which of course is the ex. MIL really should be thankful that Mike got rid of his first wife and got me instead.

If you think you hear a tone, in the above statement, you do.

I am not getting any replies.
And I clean my room, for two reasons, one it is the only room in the house I can keep clean and two, so my friend has enough room to fill it up.

I need a day off.

Maybe a long vacation.

Alone.

You can still email me in here, just in a PM if you have something to say, that you don't the world to read. You just have to say it in 3000 characters or less or in more PM's. There is still hope I might get an email address so I can recieve pictures.

I am told no matter how unappreciative, our darlings are of all the loving things we do for them, we still have to take care of them and love them.

Just so you know, I know of all the love that pours into all you do for darlings.

Dear Jill.

.

Wishing You a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.