Secular Confessions

**Bridget** · 03-22-2011, 01:02 PM

You ladies are funny today.
Kai is pretending to make soup with the playdoh we made today. He just came up to me with the pot and said, "You have to try this. I first made it without the lemon juice and it was splendid and messy. Then I put in the lemon juice and it's wonderful!"

God I love this boy.

**daylilies** · 03-22-2011, 01:11 PM

Aww, too cute, Bridget.
I just remembered, DH said to me "Make a list of what you want in your garden this year (we just moved in last year and I didn't do the garden yet). I said "Oh I don't think I want to do a garden" and he said "I'm going to do it." !!
I think he hopes that if he makes the initiative, I'll get into it and we can all spend time working on it. Should be interesting!
I think I want tomatoes, but I'm not sure what else. Anyone know what's good for beginner gardeners?

**missychrissy** · 03-22-2011, 01:48 PM

I don't have a clue. I leave all that up to Rich. He grows tomatoes, beans, peas, squash, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, corn and beats...I'm sure there's more but that's all I can remember. I don't do one thing in regards to the garden. Except eat it.

We haven't had a garden at our 'new' house even though this will be our 3rd year here. I guess we never felt like it was going to be our permanent home.

**Cosmosmom** · 03-22-2011, 02:08 PM

Well once we are done getting snow....have a winter storm warning or something tonight/tomorrow....I can't wait to garden.

I think that I'm doing tomatoes....maybe 3 and one cherry tomato. 1-2 green bell peppers. Cuccumbers and maybe string beans or snow peas. I started planning all sorts of things and DH freaked out and wants me to start small.

Don't think that I will be planting until around memorial day...

**missychrissy** · 03-22-2011, 02:10 PM

Pepper! Yes, Rich plants those as well!

It's not planting time here either. We're expecting 1-3 inches and the next 'warm' day predicted isn't until the 31st...40 something. boo.

**Cosmosmom** · 03-22-2011, 02:22 PM

I'm thinking we are supposed to get around 4 inches but just a little north of me, they are looking at 10+ last I heard. happy that isn't me!

**daylilies** · 03-22-2011, 04:00 PM

Ooo, I think peas. I remember eating raw peas all the time when I was a kid and we had a garden. What about strawberries?

**missychrissy** · 03-22-2011, 06:05 PM

The Jesi saga continues...Social services visited Bobbie and Sydney at school, and then came to the house tonight complete with sheriff deputy. They were asking about Rich and Jesi and the night Rich 'grabbed' Jesi. They're referring to the night after she shaved her head and skipped school on Friday and the following Monday. Rich did get in her face and he was very vocal to her...I told you all about that.

I feel like this is a never ending nightmare. The caseworker was one of my former coworkers from mental health. Talk about humiliating. Both the caseworker and deputy tried making me feel better. They said they see this sort of thing all the time. Teens get defiant and get in trouble, then try to call social services on their parents. The deputy remembers being out here when Jesi was missing...so at least he knows she's been on the edge of trouble herself. They both felt the kids were safe and the deputy told me to just keep doing what we're doing because a lot of parents are afraid to discipline their kids. Even with his assurances, it still didn't feel good. I'm back to wondering wth I've done wrong.

Bobbie is moping because we won't be able to provide her with a car before Sept. when she goes to college. They have a car here to share, but it can't go with her. Even though I know I don't owe them a car, I'm still feeling like a failure.

**Bridget** · 03-22-2011, 06:10 PM

Jesus, Chrissy. The

emoticon just doesn't feel sufficient anymore. I'm starting to feel angry at them for putting you through this. And poor Rich. He must feel really hurt.
I agree keep doing what you're doing. I wish I could help you.

**Gwenn** · 03-22-2011, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by bridgetwu75

Jesus, Chrissy. The

emoticon just doesn't feel sufficient anymore. I'm starting to feel angry at them for putting you through this. And poor Rich. He must feel really hurt.
I agree keep doing what you're doing. I wish I could help you.

This exactly.

**missychrissy** · 03-22-2011, 06:15 PM

The support helps a lot. It's not just cliche...if I didn't have this board to run to, I'd be in bed crying under my covers right now.

I don't mean to make Bobbie sound selfish...her sadness probably wouldn't even bother me if it weren't for the other stuff going on. She's just talking about how she'd like things to be. I'm trying to reassure her that although it won't be perfect, things will work out for her somehow.

**daylilies** · 03-22-2011, 06:37 PM

I agree you're doing fine. I'm glad you had the deputy and caseworker's support. I wish I could do more to help! If you ever need to get away I'm probably about 4 hours away

**Gwenn** · 03-22-2011, 06:47 PM

I hate to keep complaining about work all the time but I got some news that really worried me. Apparently the administration is considering hiring SLP assistants (people with associate degrees who are licensed to work only under direct supervision of someone with my certification). My lead let us know in 2 sentences of an email and got a lot of concerned responses, so sent a "clarification" only to the 50% of us who work directly for the district to say that they will not be letting any district employees go. Reading between the lines, if they let the contractors go and replace them all with assistants that could well mean my job would end up as supervising assistants and doing paperwork, and nothing else. Not all district employees have their full certs as I do - maybe about 1/2 of us or possibly less than that. That's a really unappetizing prospect and I know they aren't doing it to provide us with assistance and lighten workloads. They're doing it so they don't have to pay 15K more than they are paying me for contractors. Which could also affect us as a bargaining unit wanting equal pay. Really, really bad news. Oh, and my professional association states that 1/3 of an assistant's contact hours should be directly supervised by someone with full certs. So I also suspect they'll either give us too many people to adequately supervise or a caseload that won't allow us time for adequate supervision. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

**missychrissy** · 03-23-2011, 06:22 AM

Oh Mandy, that's terrible.

I hate hate hate when money overrides what's good for kids or anyone with challenges. I'm sure I don't have all the answers, but cutting services isn't one of them. It's just going to make things worse for a lot of people, especially the kids, in the long run.

Originally Posted by daylilies

I agree you're doing fine. I'm glad you had the deputy and caseworker's support. I wish I could do more to help! If you ever need to get away I'm probably about 4 hours away

Aww, thanks! Unfortunately, the caseworker that visited last night was just the one on call for after hours and he won't really have any say or impact on which way the case is decided. Not that having a 'founded' case against us is going to change anything. If Jesi skips school, she's going to hear about it.

**missychrissy** · 03-23-2011, 09:26 AM

Did you see Elizabeth Taylor died?

**daylilies** · 03-23-2011, 11:16 AM

Yeah

I'm not really familiar with her work. I knew of her mostly because she was married so many times.

I picked up the Buddhism for Mothers book, finally. I almost picked up the wrong book because someone else with my quite uncommon last name also had a book on the hold shelf!

**missychrissy** · 03-23-2011, 11:39 AM

I'm not familiar with any of her work either. My boss was kinda giving me flack about that and not being aware of who Paul Newman was

I mean, I recognize his name but I don't think I've ever seen a single movie that he was in.

How strange someone else shares your last name.

**daylilies** · 03-23-2011, 11:50 AM

I like Paul Newman's salad dressing

I know some of his older movies because my mom and I used to watch them together.

Once in a while I run into someone who knows someone with my last name, but they're never anyone I know :shrug:

**missychrissy** · 03-23-2011, 12:27 PM

Rich's family is huge. There are 12 on his father's side, and most of them I've never met. Rich hasn't seen them since he was a kid. People are constantly asking if I know so-and-so or if we're related. In all honesty, they could be cousins to Rich but he doesn't even have any idea if they are or not. His family is quite dysfunctional, and what's really sad is that his father's side is the better half.

**daylilies** · 03-23-2011, 12:50 PM

That's interesting, DH doesn't know his father's side either.

**AmeriBrit** · 03-23-2011, 02:19 PM

Y'all have been busy in here lately!

I've not been online as much this week as DH has the week off, so we've just been spending a lot of time outside playing with the boys. We're off to the zoo tomorrow with them and staying in a hotel (mainly to go swimming in the in-door pool!) Looking forward to that. Oh, and we're booking our tickets to the US in the next few days...I'm so excited about that...Finally something to look forward to!!!

**missychrissy** · 03-23-2011, 05:28 PM

That must be really exciting! More than exciting, really. I'm so happy for you!! When are you coming over? For how long?

I think I'm up a creek. Wells Fargo has asked for tax returns for 08, 09, and 10 and I cannot find 08's anywhere. She asked for them as well as the request for the IRS to send her transcripts of our return, so I just wrote her and asked if the actual return is vital. I mean, she's going to be getting the transcript anyway, right? So what's the big deal?

**Bridget** · 03-23-2011, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by missychrissy

That must be really exciting! More than exciting, really. I'm so happy for you!! When are you coming over? For how long?

I think I'm up a creek. Wells Fargo has asked for tax returns for 08, 09, and 10 and I cannot find 08's anywhere. She asked for them as well as the request for the IRS to send her transcripts of our return, so I just wrote her and asked if the actual return is vital. I mean, she's going to be getting the transcript anyway, right? So what's the big deal?

If you call the irs, they'll send it to you, if you end up needing it.

**missychrissy** · 03-23-2011, 05:35 PM

Yeah, but our WF deadline is 3 days. IRS says it takes approximately 30.

**Gwenn** · 03-23-2011, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by missychrissy

Oh Mandy, that's terrible.

I hate hate hate when money overrides what's good for kids or anyone with challenges. I'm sure I don't have all the answers, but cutting services isn't one of them. It's just going to make things worse for a lot of people, especially the kids, in the long run.

And that's the big part right there ... early intervention works. Help kids with stuff they're struggling when they're young, and in many cases they won't need help later. NOT helping means potentially poor grades, low-paying jobs, unemployment, prison ... the cost to society for that is SO MUCH MORE than providing early intervention while they're young! And skimping on services is almost worse. It's like saying your going to do something and never doing that.

I emailed my lead about my concerns yesterday, and today she responded to say she was worried about the same thing. Yikes.

Originally Posted by missychrissy

I'm not familiar with any of her work either. My boss was kinda giving me flack about that and not being aware of who Paul Newman was

I mean, I recognize his name but I don't think I've ever seen a single movie that he was in.

How strange someone else shares your last name.

I can't think of a single Paul Newman film I've actually watched but I'm sure I must have seen one or two ... but I know he was gorgeous in his day. And he does make a mean salad dressing.

My former boyfriend (the author) told me a story once about how his mother got him a job as an intern and Paul Newman come to his workplace one day. This would have been in the mid 70's maybe (the author was much older than me). Apparently all the women had their hair immaculately done, full make-up, and were dressed in their most attractive clothes. All the men were just laughing at the women over that.

Okay, so I'm glad I'm not still with him but he certainly knew how to tell an entertaining story. I really didn't do it justice there, I know.

**daylilies** · 03-23-2011, 06:47 PM

He's certainly a very good looking guy! And I love the chemistry between him and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

**missychrissy** · 03-23-2011, 08:28 PM

It must have been funny to see all the women fawning all over Paul Newman.

I was looking at pictures of him today, and I know I wouldn't have known him if he sat next to me on a bus. His images didn't ring any bells with me. My parents weren't movie people at all. I can't recall them ever watching a movie. The first one I remember my dad watching was Pretty Woman.

I've heard of the Butch Cassidy movie with Robert Redford, but I've never seen it. I may have to watch it some Sunday when I have nothing else going on.

**Gwenn** · 03-23-2011, 08:44 PM

Just looking through a picture gallery of Elizabeth Taylor and saw one of her with Paul Newman. Seriously, I can't think of two better looking people in the same place.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q...w=1148&bih=587

**daylilies** · 03-23-2011, 08:59 PM

Hmm, I haven't seen that one. Heard of it though.

**Gwenn** · 03-23-2011, 09:20 PM

I actually haven't seen the movie, but my high school english class took a field trip to watch a live performance of the play! It was good but as a 16 year old I couldn't really relate to the theme (a sexually frustrated woman married to a gay man).

And wow - looking at the Wikipedia page the homosexual theme was edited out of the movie - too racy for the 60's I guess. But it was the primary theme of the stage play as I recall it.

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