I always knew there was something special about my granddaughter, but I heard a story about her just recently that proves just how special she truly is.

Jordyn loves to draw, so she has decided to put her talents to work. She has made a deal with her friends in her class at school that if they behave all day long, she will reward them with one of her drawings. She also has declared she wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

Pretty good for a six-year-old Kindergarten student. Can you see the shine from my smile or feel the pride in my heart?

Proud Grammy

Our daughter, son-in-law and precious grandson will be moving to Virginia next month, so we decided to visit them for two weeks to create some quality moments. (They live 8 hours from us)

Things didn't quite turn out the way we were hoping. We got to their home last Thursday evening and in the wee hours of the morning on Mother's Day we ended up in the ER with my hubby. Chuck has many health issues, but a med one of his doctor's had prescribed for him created some of those nasty side effects that the ads on tv tell about. After another night of symptoms, we decided to take him to the VA hospital closer to home that has access to all of his medical files.

Our daughter and grandson came with us. One of our other daughters, her husband and two children met us at a restaurant in Temple so we could hand over our grandson to them. This was Monday evening.

Chuck was admitted Monday night and we finally were able to check him out late Thursday afternoon. We are still awaiting the result of an EEG, which hopefully we'll know something this Thursday at his doctor's appointment at the VA clinic in Austin. The hardest thing about living in the country outside of a small town? Having to drive many miles to the VA clinics and hospitals!

The diagnosis so far is to get the med that he shouldn't have been given in the first place out of his system, a replacement of his seizure meds which just weren't doing the job anymore, CAT scan showed no tumors (WHEW!), and now just the waiting game of the outcome of the EEG.

One of the things hubby is not too happy with, but accepting it, is not being behind the wheel of the car for now. So I am the designated driver, which is almost as bad as if he had to give up his control of the remote on the tv. Which in a way is happening, because he is very tired and not feeling too well since his hospital stay, so he is sleeping a lot in his chair, thus the remote is within my reach, oh yeah HGTV channel instead of SCI-FI.

I have to admit though he looked pretty cute in the VA's pj's in my favorite color, yellow. I told my mom about them and she told me to be sure and get a pic of him, which I did.

Daughter Amy and grandson are staying with other daughter who lives 35 miles from us. They will fly back home on Thursday. I was so glad she was with me through my hubby's hospital stay. Luckily Amy's husband's roommate during their med school days at Tech is now a doctor in Temple. We only had to stay one night at a hotel and the rest of the time stayed with their doctor friend, his wife and adorable little boy.

Amy just called and she and our grandson will come over here to spend the next couple of days with us, so it means I have a road trip this afternoon to go pick them up. Good thing our old Jeep Cherokee still gets good gas mileage even though she recently turned over to over 251,000 miles. We want to name her, but haven't decided yet, so if anyone has any suggestions, bring them on.

God Bless All Who Came By and those who didn't. Don't want to leave anyone out.

Karen

Substitute teaching isn't exactly an easy thing to do and I was reminded yesterday how harrowing it can really become. It was one of those crazy days full of end of the year testing days, so the schedules at high school are all mixed around. It didn't help that I had been called into a classroom cold turkey with no notes or a substitute folder from the teacher to help in any way. I made a couple trips to the office asking for advice about how to handle things.

It was one of those hectic days that I should have known better and had used my intelligent being that I normally am instead of listening to the intelligence of a few students. My gut feeling said no, but I allowed it to happen, so I take and took full responsibility as to what happened. What I didn't take into consideration is that the Assistant Principal, whom I have known for many, many years, had started his day with an unusual stressful day. This kind man was someone I didn't even recognize. Unfortunately I was caught in the line of fire and I received it with both barrels in front of the entire office staff, plus the police officer who is on campus. Talk about an embarrassing moment!

I won't go into detail about the situation, only to say I was gullible to write a pass for a few boys to go someplace else during my class, which they assured me the teacher always let them. When things like that happen I always had teacher's written guidelines handy, in this case there were none. Instead of my intelligent being calling the office to verify, I took their word for it. Boy was I wrong. In all my years of growing up I never was called into the Principal's office, but as a grown up I have been there a few times since I did work as a Teacher Assistant for 20 years. Yesterday, however, has to be one of the most uncomfortable times in my life.

Yet, everything that happens in our lives can be a learning moment, and I hope this was a learning moment for myself, the AP, and the one boy that was the main player in yesterday's drama. I sat down with the boy and calmly talked to him back in the classroom. I know most of the students since they were in Kindergarten, but I had never met this young man before. From just a little bit of what I learned about him, he isn't exactly one of those students who doesn't find trouble.

I told him that when he pulls things like he did, he needs to stop and think who else it might effect. At that point I wasn't even sure if I would have my subbing job anymore and I told him this. I asked him to do me a favor and please consider the people around him and how his antics will effect their lives as well as his own life. I pray that this incident had to have happened to help this boy take a good look at himself and try to fix some things.

I always own up to the fact I have made a mistake to people, as I tried to do with AP, but at the moment he wasn't in the mood to hear my words. I sat for the rest of the period trying to hold the tears back, but unfortunately I'm a tender-hearted bloke, and the tears came anyway. Thank goodness there were only a handful of students in the class and their attention was on the computer monitors. I excused myself to the restroom, wiped my eyes and face with cold water, returned to the room, put lipstick on and put my sunglasses on. Thank goodness it was the last class of the day.

So I walked the halls to the office, the longest walk of my life it seemed, went into an office to sign out. The secretary who calls the subs told me she told AP he had been mean to me and if it had been her she would have been in tears. I turned and told her I had been, then the tears came again. Oh my, another embarrassing moment. She rushed out to get me some tissues. She was so kind and supportive, telling me the AP was retiring and unfortunately he started out the day in a terrible mood and I wasn't the only one he had hollered at, so that helped a little. She told me to not worry about it, which of course is impossible to do, so I prayed about it and prayed for the poor man who must be going through something tough right now, or he would have never handled the situation as he had done.

Well, here is my quick poem I wrote while still in the classroom, writing down some of the things I was feeling at the time. It always helps me get those feeling contained.

NO TITLE

When will I learn to be the adult?
To not take the word of a youth?
They are known to play us like a drum
Making loud noises to help distract
us from our required jobs, our intelligence.
Our years should warn us
Yet sometimes we are just too trusting
Then we find ourselves falling into
a netted trap, embarrassment surrounds
us, our outer and inner takes a beating
in front of witnesses observing our uncomfortable
stature, all 5 feet 2 inches of my 61 years.
It'll be a long journey through the hall
My vision will be blurred by tear-filled eyes.



Well TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE! One of my favorite sayings.

The sun will be shining, well, behind our cloudy skies, but that's okay. It's there someplace, so I can smile

Have a WONDERFUL day and I will do the same.

Thoughts, prayers and blessings to all of my Stream friends.

Karen

WE HAD TWO MAJOR STORMS GO THROUGH HERE LAST WEEK. WE LOST A CEDAR TREE AND A LOT OF BRANCHES. IT REMINDED ME HOW SPECIAL TREES CAN BECOME TO US. THE CEDAR WAS IN JUST THE RIGHT PLACE TO GIVE US MORE PRIVACY THAN WE HAVE, SO NOW THERE IS A HOLE THAT WILL BE OPENED UP WHEN WE GET THE TREE CUT AND CLEARED OUT.

THE FOLLOWING POEM I WROTE 25 YEARS AGO. OUR HOME THEN WAS ON 5 ACRES OF EMPTINESS, EXCEPT FOR A FEW MESQUITE TREES. IT'S FUNNY HOW MUCH I STILL MISS THAT TREE. THE POEM TELLS A TRUE STORY OF THE TREE.

The Coming Home Tree

It's been four years since we had to leave
Our home, our friends our old mesquite tree,
Framed within the kitchen window pane
It grew, it shaded, it glistened with rain.

Our hearts were torn, our eyes grew dim
As we last looked upon its twisted limb,
Goodbyes were hard, yet we tried to believe
That someday the mesquite would be the coming home tree.

Not long ago a chance appeared
To visit the tree we held so dear,
Our hearts were torn, our eyes grew dim
As we viewed the hill where our tree had once been.

"OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS GO OUT TO THE FAMILIES WHO LOST THEIR HOMES AND LIVELIHOOD DUE TO THE STORMS THAT HIT VIRGINIA THIS WEEK."



KAREN

We finally got back home Wednesday afternoon after our two week trip. We had a great trip and although there was wild weather around us, we missed it, or it missed us. Our jeep with approx. 240,000 miles on it did us proud. The secret I think is that my hubby has always changed the oil every 3,000 miles. He changed it right before we left, and now it needs it again. We really put some miles on our little darling.

Our new granddaughter is a real cutie and was so much fun to cuddle. It was extremely hard to have to leave, but we spent several days in Oklahoma with my sister and family before returning on Wednesday. Since it is my sister's birthday on the 29th I told her I would do a photo shoot for her of her family. So Sunday they all came over to her house for a get-together and so much fun, especially meeting her great-granddaughter for the first time and she's over a year old, but as adorable as any one could be.

The most surprising happening of the whole trip was the fact that my hubby actually turned over the driving to me, so I drove almost the whole time on the trip. Unfortunately, with me driving I didn't get to take photos along the way. I did stop the jeep twice to take photos of wildflowers in Arkansas and the redbud trees along the side of the road. They were quite awesome. One thing I did miss out on is photographing the flooding Mississippi River. It was quite impressive, but I'm sure not for the folks who live along the river.

Anyway, just letting everyone know we made the trip and it couldn't have been more perfect. My Sis and I had a wonderful visit since she went with us on the trip to Georgia. We really miss being close to one another.

I pray everyone has had a great two weeks. I subbed at school and will again today. Then we get our grandson for the weekend and the other grandparents get his sister while our daughter and hubby are taking a weekend by themselves, which doesn't happen, so we are all excited they will be having some together, kidless time. They deserve it.

Blessings to all of my Stream Friends. Thank you for all who stopped by during our absence and left comments, and those who didn't. All of you are very special, caring people whom I am so fortunate to call Friends.

Please have a fantastic Friday and weekend. Looks like we might be hit with some pretty rough weather tonight or tomorrow morning if it keeps on its course.

Karen