11 posts tagged “michael”

Hailey, Michael and I had our usual Christmas Day. Michael spends the night, I stay up and play Santa and we get up on Christmas and open gifts and have good food and do not go ANYWHERE. My budget was really tight this year but there were many things that Hailey needed for her trip to California and Michael desperately needed a new bedset, and they both wanted the new Guitar Hero World Tour so all in all I think they were happy with their gifts. I decided to buck tradition this year on the food. Instead of cooking some big piece of meat and a bunch of sides, I decided to cook my, now perfected, spaghetti and meatballs. The kids, neither of which even care for turkey, were both thrilled by the idea so I believe we now have a new tradition. I made biscuits, cinnamon rolls, bacon and sausage for breakfast along with some Christmas eggs for myself (something I just made up).

Alyssa had Christmas with her parents then came and got Michael and they went to his apartment to have their little Christmas together and then they came back to have dinner with us.

It was a very nice Christmas day.

Here's some of the best pics that I took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael got me the coolest candle ever. It has a wick that is made out of a special kind of wood and it actually makes a sound like a fire cracking when it burns.

 

Merry Christmas!

Wow! My blog is SO far behind so here's a very condensed update.

Christmas Eve we all met at my Mom's house to eat and exchange gifts. We drew names for the first time this year, primarily to remove some of the financial burden of buying so many gifts from myself and Mom for our trip to California. Really though, it's been unfair for quite some time because my Sister has so many more people in her clan that I have to buy for and the fact that she is married and I am single, we should have made this change a while ago. For the first time she complained about having to buy so many gifts and I just said "I hear ya!". This was the first time I had seen Alex since last Christmas and he is the cutest little thing ever. Cameron is growing up and looks more and more the spitting image of his Father. Mom cooked a ham and some baked beans and myself, my niece Jessica and my sister brought other goodies. Amber (my sister's husbands daughter) came for the first time in several years. She has gotten so skinny! I hope she is OK! Michael had drawn her name and for the first time in his life he took care of his own gift LOL! It's about time! He got her some Bath and Body Works stuff and she didn't say Thank You. Apparently she never does according to my Mother. The weather was really, really bad and there were actually tornado warning (this is becoming more and more common down here in the South due to the global warming - yes I said it and I believe it is true!)

I was very glad we got to see Mom's shabby chic Christmas since, due to Michael's attack we were not able to attend last year. It's amazing to me how much he has changed in one year, primarily due to Alyssa. She has really changed him for the better and he is so much more happy and responsible now.

Santa Claus came on a firetruck and we all went outside. Alex loved it!

Here's some of the best photos that I took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I was perusing my blog today and saw nothing but text for the last few posts...I'm all about lovin the written word, but I loves me some multi-media...where's the photos, where's the vids, where's the tunes? So, without further, whatever....here's a photo blog I call 'Bad to the Bone'! It includes pics of Hailey and her friend Faith, a rare photo of Michael WITHOUT facial hair, pics of his girlfriend Alyssa (which I totally snagged from her myspace but I know she won't mind), some pics of the fur babies and a couple of lame nature pics...and a little surprise at the bottom...

Here's the optional  mandatory accompanying music, Enjoy!

 

 

Fatso being Fatso!

 

 

 

Heidi outside on a hot summer day!

 

A little bug on my wandering jew! (not a great photo)

 

 

Hailey and Faith bein teenagers!

 

 

 

Alyssa, bein Alyssa!

 

Michael bein scary!

 

And now for the surprise:

 

Miss Hailey drivin the car! She got her license yesterday!

Yeah! We sat in that stinky old DMV for 4 hours before she finally hit the road with Miz Officer Thang and she passed with flying colors! I tell ya it was a very strange feeling seeing MY car pulling into the DMV parking lot knowing that my little girl was behind the wheel and I wasn't in the car with her!

She's just a baby damnit!

Good-night all, hope you enjoyed this little compilation since I haven't done any familia stuff in a while!

Are we intrigued by the death of someone that we don't personally know. I think that we are. I know that I am both intrigued and deeply affected, sometimes for reasons that I cannot explain.

For example:

When Dale Earnhardt was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500 I was not a Nascar fan. This particularly redneck dude I was dating at the time called me up. "Are you watching this race?" "No!" I replied with disgusted dignity. He lived in a kind of bachelor pad/college dorm type house where several guys lived together. The other line beeped in continuously. All calls about Dale Earnhardt's untimely wreck and later to be discovered, death. That was Sunday. Early Monday morning I started reading about what had happened on the internet. I read article after article about this man who had died. Of course, living in Alabama I was aware of Nascar. I had even been to Talladega 3 times, but it was strictly to party in the infield and I was vaguely aware that a race was going on (definitely my loss because at that time, Big E was still on the track and I missed it all). The more I read, the more I was affected, it got into my blood and my heart and I'm still grieving the loss of a man that I knew nothing about when he was alive. I've missed very few races since then.

When my daughter was 1 year old, on the day after Thanksgiving my boyfriend and I took her to the mall to go shopping. Afterwards we drove home. No big deal right? After arriving home I received a phone call from my sister who wanted to make sure Hailey was OK. "Of course she is why?" I said. There had been a little girl shot and killed riding in a truck with her parents. She was in her car seat between her parents when her body suddenly went limp. It was determined that it was a stray bullet from a deer hunter in the area, the bullet had come through the back window and into her head. I soon learned that this family lived very close to us, that the little girl was within one month of Hailey's exact age, AND they had gone the same route that we had gone to the same mall and the parents had bought the little girl some cowboy boots (she was wearing them when she died). This totally freaked me out for a very long time.

I somehow happened upon a story online about a woman who was pregnant with twins. It was a rather late in life pregnancy with the woman's second husband. She already had two grown daughters from a previous marriage but she was healthy and her pregnancy was uneventful; however she died delivering the second baby. Out of curiosity I found this woman's myspace page and I found progressive photos of her growing belly, photos of the developing nursery and photos of the children she left behnd. It deeply affected me for some reason. I guess because this woman was so excited about the birth of these babies and, from what I read, she only got to see one of them before she lost consciousness. These kind of things really make you scratch your head and wonder "Why"?

I have also been affected by the death of certain other celebrities. When I heard that Heath Ledger had died, at first I didn't know exactly who it was but I soon found out. I had watched 10 Things I Hate About You many times and loved the movie. I loved him most of all. I immediately went out and bought the movie for Hailey to watch and I also bought Brokeback Mountain (although I have not watched it yet). I read and read about Heath, his life, his history, his daughter, his family. Such a beautiful, talented young man who had so much more life ahead.  The debut of The Dark Knight has broken box-office records and from what I hear and read, a lot of that has to do with not only Heath's performance, but also the fact that he is no longer with us. It is a very sad and intriguing story and for some unknown reason, I am deeply effected. Heath Ledger was such an attractive young man and one of those who is so good-looking that I can hardly bear to look at photos where his eyes bore into me. Here are a few that I snagged from TMZ.

Note: These photos did not have a copyright or watermark on them and right-click was not disabled so, to me that means they are free for the taking. I'm just posting this because I know how sleazy TMZ can be and I want to make sure I'm covered. RIP Heath.

 

 

 

 

PS: My son went to see The Dark Knight last night and he said it was absolutely amazing and Heath's portrayal of The Joker was chilling and demented and downright astounding. Hailey and I may go see it tomorrow.

I haven't blogged much lately except about a couple of reality shows I'm following. I just haven't had much to blog about. Things have been slow as we inch closer and closer to the beginning of football. But today, I do have a few things to say:

1. Today is the one year anniversary of my Father's untimely and sudden death. By the coroner's guess he passed away around 3:15am on Thursday, July 19th, 2007. He was found around 3:30 by my half-Brother. He was lying in the floor between the couch and the coffee table. Much to my chagrin, by request of my evil step-mother no autopsy was done. I would have liked to know for sure what killed my Father. A doctor's visit about 3 weeks prior to his death found nothing out of the ordinary. It has been surmised that it was a piece of plaque that traveled through his arteries and eventually reached either his heart or his brain. All of the experts agree he died suddenly, even before he hit the floor. His arms were not outstretched, as if to try and break his fall. They were by his sides and a small bruise on his nose most likely from striking the coffee table when he fell. I would still like to know. Because of my step-mother's selfish and emotional decision not to have an autopsy done, myself, my siblings and all of our children (and their children) will forever have this question mark in our medical history. I don't know what was listed as the cause of death because I have never even seen the death certificate. You see, my sister and I (from my Father's previous 20 year marriage to our Mother) have been completely and effectively SHUT OUT of all handlings of my Father's death and estate. Was there a will? We don't know. Nothing was ever filed with the probate office but according to a lady I spoke with there, it is not required by law to do so in the great state of Alabama. Was there any life insurance? Well, obviously there was but apparently none of it was ear-marked for my sister and I. My Father worked his entire life and was a very successful business man. He retired 9 years prior to his death. When he retired he gave both me and my sister $5000.00 but I do not believe that was to be our inheritance. At the time of his death he owned two homes. One on a local lake on one of the most sought after locations (which my step-mother quickly sold) and a 5 bedroom 4 bath home complete with swimming pool, barn and stabling for two horses. My step-mother, who never worked a day after they married 27 years prior, drove a BMW. Does this sound like a man who couldn't afford to leave something for his eldest children? I think not. To add insult to injury, my sister and I have not even been allowed to come to the house and see if there were any of his personal belongings that we might want. She never liked us, she never liked the idea of him having children from a previous marriage, she didn't want to have anything to do with anybody that was a part of his life prior to her own era. How selfish is that? She didn't even publish an obituary in the newspaper and had a 'rushed up' funeral 2 days after he died. She relied on an old friend of my Father's, a lady that worked for him from the beginning of his business in 1973, to call my Dad's friends. One particular friend told me that he and his wife were out of town and were barely able to get back in time for the funeral.  Anyone from my Dad's 'pre-her' years that came to the funeral, learning of it through word of mouth in the small town that my Father was born, raised and buried in, were effectively ignored by my step-mother at the funeral.  In the small chapel where his service was held, my sister and I were left to find our own seats. Nobody escorted us to the front pew where my step-mother and her son sat. We were barely acknowledged as his children by her. As you can tell, I'm quite troubled and bitter about this whole situation. I have been for quite a while. It's just the not knowing that causes me such trouble. If I could just know, from her, if he didn't leave us anything and why, it would provide a lot of closure for me. I know that my Father knew that she and their child together would survive him by a number of years. He was almost 50 years old when they married and had their son (he is the same age as my son, she at the age of 40 and I at the age of 17 were pregnant at the same time). I know that he had to plan for this and provide for them, but I just cannot make myself believe that this would be done by sacrificing anything left for his eldest children. Am I just being stupid? Or does all this sound as shady as I think it sounds? Just a few months after my Father passed away, my step-mother's own Father passed away. She got everything. At the funeral she divided the contents of my Father's pockets between us three children: my Brother got a pocket knife, my sister got his handkerchief and one quarter, I got the other two quarters. The sarcastic way she dropped them into my hand, as if to say, "This is all you're gonna get too" still haunts me. Although at the time, I had no idea that was the real reason she did it that way. Anyway, I love you Daddy and I miss you every day. It has been a tough year here without you. I still haven't graduated from college yet, but I've only got 2 classes left and I'm going to get that degree. Things are going very well for me at work except for the fact that I'm still not making the kind of money I need. Your eldest grandson is doing very well. He's working about 3 different jobs and dating a beautiful girl who belly dances in her spare time. Your beautiful granddaughter is about to begin her Senior year in high school.  Gosh these years have flown by so fast! She will be a section leader in the band this year and she is going to Pasadena, CA to march in the Tournament of Roses parade. I know you would be so proud of her. I'm so sad that you never go to come to a football game to see the band perform while you were here. I invited you so many times but you never could work it out so you could come. I sent you an e-mail during Hailey's sophomore year inviting you again, to come to a game and I remember writing you a little stern reminder that "high school only lasts 4 years". I had no idea when I wrote that, that you would be gone from this earth before those 4 years were over. I love you Daddy.
2. Whew! That took a bit out of me so I guess that's all for today. Don't ever take a minute for granted. I know that I took for granted the fact that my Father would always be around. I don't do that anymore. I talk to my Mother practically every day and spend time with her whenever I possibly can.

I love my fur babies. They are like my children. I ESPECIALLY love Fatso. We've had this big furball of a cat since he was born and he is just so sweet and loving, he has a very special place in my heart reserved JUST for him.Although he can be very sweet and loving, he also commands a certain amount of respect. Fatso does not tolerate things such as being restrained or even being held or fooled with for too long. He ESPECIALLY doesn't like anyone venturing into areas such as his haunches or his tail when brushing him. I'll openly admit it: I'm afraid of Fatso! Although fat, his reaction time is akin to a Jaguar and I'm NOT kidding! He has hurt me many times over the years so I have learned to be respectful and careful! Fatso is a Maine Coon aka FURBALL! He has long, long hair and it is EVERYWHERE in my house. I try to brush him regularly, but he doesn't tolerate it well and he absolutely will not allow me to brush the areas that REALLY need it! This has resulted in some knots on Fatso's chest and down in his 'neutered but still somewhat manly area'.

Michael is much braver and stronger than me (and tolerates pain much better also)! So I told him last week I couldn't take cleaning up the hair any longer and I was concerned about the knots and I wanted him to buy a shaver and come shave the knots off of Fatso and give him a bath.

Well Michael and Alyssa arrived last night with a brand new trimmer and a whole bunch of good intentions! Alyssa, being the intelectual girl that she is wants to follow the instructions that come with the trimmer and some other techniques that she's heard of from pet groomers. She's even brought him a special treat to give him after the procedure is over so he will 'associate the shaver with a treat'. Yeah right! She doesn't realize that there is no instruction booklet written on how to deal with Fatso! She soon learns this though....

So they spread a blanket out on the couch and Alyssa starts shaving his sides while Michael holds him. So far, so good. Then about 10 seconds later Fatso begins to buck and resist like a Red Bull!

 

After a couple of minutes Fatso is spitting everywhere, Michael can't even hold him. So they let him go. Fatso is MADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!  After a couple more attempts Michael is about ready to give up as he is bleeding from several nice cuts on his arms. Alyssa has more ideas though: She says we should try putting something over his head to keep him calm and to put socks on his legs so he can't claw Michael. She went out to her car and got the bag from a bottle of Crown Royal and I went and got 2 old pairs of socks. She put the bag over Fatso's head and pulled the drawstring just a bit to keep it on. Then, with Michael holding him, tried to put the little booties on all four of his feet. I was laughing so hard I forgot to take a picture but it was quite hilarious! Fatso must have worked with Houdini in another life because before they could even get 2 of the booties on him he somehow removed that bag from his head, removed the booties from his feet, spit, scratched and clawed and catapulted his entire body out of Michael's grip! He was all bowed up looking at all of us like "WHAT THE HELL ARE Y'ALL TRYING TO DO TO ME?" Bob is freaking out because he doesn't understand what is going on. Heidi doesn't care because she's rekindled her relationship with Hailey.

 

So, the saga continues....

Although they have removed a sizeable amount of hair with the trimmer, they have still only touched the tip of the iceburg and haven't even ventured to his underbelly (I can already see that that is NOT going to happen, Fatso is just NOT going to have it and all the brute force Michael has cannot even restrain him). Finally they decide to try cutting off some hair with scissors. Fatso is a little bit more agreeable to this but still it's not very long before he rebels.

Finally, Michael is ready to concede defeat and asks me to call a groomer and get a price. He takes Fatso upstairs to give him a much needed bath.

 

 

 

Poor Baby! So now he has a haircut that looks like he did it himself, but at least he's clean.

I'm calling a groomer tomorrow.

I haven't had much to blog about this week besides American Idol and Hailey's new job. I've been feeling kind of blah, started back to school this week, so there's that. I haven't been inspired to take any nature photos because it's just the same old stuff outside. I need a new place, something new to photograph. Anyways...I finally got the two couples together last night. Corey was over visiting with Hailey and Michael called and asked me if I was cooking (which translates into he's hungry and broke LOL). So I invited him and Alyssa over to eat and hang out and so he could finally meet Corey.

I took some group photos:

At first everybody was a bit tense...I think Corey was afraid to touch Hailey around Michael. Finally I told them to do some hugging and whatnot and I got a couple of good shots.

 

 

 

 

I liked this one of each couple (except for Michael's bird finger) so I cropped it into two individual couple photos:

 

 

We had fun! I cooked hamburgers and chicken wings and we watched some band DVDs and looked at pictures. Alyssa is REALLY growing on me. She's a really sweet and smart girl. Some people may say that I don't have much of a life hanging out with my kids and their respective beaus but I treasure each and every moment I spend with them and the fact that they WANT to hang out with me means more to me than any less important thing I might could have been doing.

Before I begin I have little bit of talking I need to do. I had said yesterday that I was going to do the pictorial thing for Michael that I had done previously for Hailey and tell some stories from his life but when I pulled out the photo albums, first of all, I realized just how difficult it is to get a good photo of a photo with the shadows and all, and second of all, I got really emotional as I looked at some pictures of my kids growing up that I haven't seen in a while. I tell people with small kids this all the time but I mean SERIOUSLY, DON'T BLINK!  Don't miss anything, don't ever put your career ahead of your children because it is SO not worth it! They grow up in the blink of an eye and the older they get the faster time goes by. DON'T BLINK! The last thing I realized is that I seriously need a photo scanner and a photo printer. My photo albums abruptly stop at the beginning of the digital age. So I have half of their lives in hard-copy photo and the rest on the computer with no hard-copy. I seriously need to rectify this situation. So, I decided to skip the life story of Michael because there are some very, very sad moments in his life. Lots of good ones too but his life is a lot longer than Hailey's and I'm just not up to getting into all those old memories today. I will say, that through it all, he has turned out to be a wonderful, kind, caring and compassionate young man. He likes to curse and flip birds and smoke cigars, he still hasn't decided what he wants to be when he grows up (LOL), he is pitiful at taking care of himself sometimes but he is always there if sombody needs something.  He is, as my Dad used to say, 'Good People' and I am not only proud, but completely blessed to be his Mother. So I'm already starting to get tears in my eyes, so enough of that. On to the party!

The day was very rushed and I was supposed to go to work but I didn't. I'm sure I will catch hell tomorrow but the time just got away from me. Hailey was to meet Corey at The Summit for a date. I dropped her off and went to do my shopping. When I got home I had to clean and make the cake and decorate. Michael and Alyssa were going to come by around 7 to get his Birthday card from me (which contained 50.00 for them to go out to dinner). Michael thought he and Alyssa were going out to dinner and then they were just coming back here to have some cake. I was trying very hard to pull off another total surprise like I did last year. I don't think he suspected anything and Alyssa was in on the surprise so she had to play it cool.

They had decided they were going to Olive Garden. They looked so cute all dressed up for dinner!

 

 

 

So I sent them on their way and got back to work. I was having a hard time getting anybody to RSVP me so I made a few phone calls to confirm.  I at least had 4 people that would be here before Michael and Alyssa came back.

Meanwhile I got the cake done and the table set up. It was an 'Black Tie' affair LOL. By the way, Michael's nickname is Ska which is what most of his friends call him. I don't call him that but I didn't have room on the cake to write Michael. I thought it turned out well and I counted the candles 4 times to make sure I had 27 (when Michael was 13 or 14 I actually put the wrong amount of candles on his cake and he has never let me forget it).

 

 

I took a regular box cake mix and vamped it up a bit by substituting the water in the recipe for some strongly brewed coffee and a splash of whiskey.

So things were getting ready to go and some people showed up around 9pm. Alyssa had txt me that they were done eating and had gone back to the apartment. I told her to bring him here at 9:45.

Wait! Where is Hailey? LOL...just kidding. But I was rather proud of myself. She had met up with some other friends including BFF Brittany (who's had a car and license since age 16). I was really too tied up to go pick her up and she REALLY wanted to stay there a while SO I let her stay out and I let Brittany bring her home just in time for the party. And she made it safe and sound!

Several people were here and Alyssa was txt everybody because she didn't know what to do. There were some other people coming but they were at a restaurant and didn't know exactly when they would be here. I had to let Alyssa off the hook so I told them to come on.

We managed a pretty good surprise moment!

 

The other people showed up just minutes after Michael arrived and even more people came later. It turned out to be a pretty successful party. Although I had requested it be BYOB due to my own financial constraints it seemed that everybody was too broke so I gave them a bottle of wine and let them have some of the whiskey I had bought for the cake. I had also bought Michael a six-pack of Killian Red because he likes those weird kinds of beers.

 

 

I let Hailey have a sip of wine. She didn't like it!

 

 

These are two of Michael's oldest friends. They were friends as teenagers and he has roomed with both of them together and separately at one time or another. They all used to be in a band together and although Michael and the band parted ways, they have remained good friends.

 

Pat, the one on the left, has an ongoing love affair with Heidi.

 

Everytime he comes over she just gravitates to him and stays glued to him the whole time.

Some other friends:

This is Michael's friend Austin who I always mistakenly call Aaron. Not sure why I do that! (Hailey has a friend named Bobby that, for some reason I always call Eddie. Now I just call him Eddie Bobby). Austin and his girlfriend Martha are extreme bohemians!

 

 

 

 

 

This is Michael's current roommate Jeremy and his girl Shannon. He is the one that had to call me and give me that horrible news about Michael being in the hospital. He's a super nice guy!

 

 

So finally it was time to fire up the cake! I had to have 2 assistants to get all the candles lit!

 

(I actually caught Michael counting the candles too!)

I missed the shot when he blew them out. Oh and we sang Happy Birthday, HORRIBLY!

 

Everybody liked the cake except for Hailey. She probably would have if I hadn't told her I put those extra ingredients in!

 

When I was at the dollar store getting plates, cups, etc I spotted some bubbles and bubble paraphenalia. I thought they would be fun. I never thought a bunch of 20 somethings could have so much fun with $3.00 worth of bubble stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

Who'da thunk it?

Well my house was trashed, all the booze was pretty much gone and everybody was getting ready to leave. They were all going to a club to see some Irish band perform. I was going to bed. A good time was had by all. Happy Birthday Michael!

We had bad weather come through yesterday afternoon and into the evening. Having tornado warnings always instantly reminds me of my Dad. He took tornadoes very seriously and raised me to do the same. Back in my childhood we truly only had one tornado season and that was in the spring (now of course, with the weirdness of the weather we have another tornado season in the fall and winter, in fact, these days we can pretty much have a tornado anytime of the year). I remember many times, when I was a kid and we would go to the skating rink on Saturday night, if the weather started getting bad my Dad would always come and pick us up early. Sometimes, if bad weather was headed our way he wouldn't even let us go at all. It never bothered me because I knew he was doing it for our own safety. Such was the case last night. Hailey and Corey were to meet at The Summit for a date but as I was explaining to her (driving in the car) that she probably wouldn't get to go, he called on her celly to tell her that his Dad had told him the same thing. Surprisingly she did not argue with me. I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. So I dropped her off at home and was headed back to work to try and get in a little more time when the sirens went off for the first time. I called work and told them I wouldn't be back and headed to the grocery store to pick up a few groceries. The sirens went off again while I was in the store. As I was driving home it started raining and lightning. The wind was blowing the rain in all different directions.  I made it home and inside just as the bottom dropped out.

It rained buckets and caused the front yard to flood. I got some good pictures but had to stay on the porch so my camera wouldn't get wet. I finally ventured out to get one more shot of water gushing down the stairs and discovered the biggest weed I have ever seen! It was huge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went out this morning and it was a bit cooler and absolutely beautiful. I noticed the 'mystery car' across the street. It hasn't been there all week. I posted about this car that always has it's hood up a week or so ago and it sparked quite some conversation. Well now I've got a picture to prove it. It's an old Honda, nothing special, even missing a hubcap. But I'm telling you this car is not disabled. This person drives this car because it comes and goes. But for SOME STRANGE REASON when they park it here they raise the hood. Strange beyond strange!

 

On April 3rd my son turned 27 years old. I had to postpone his Birthday celebration a bit due to financial constraints but tonight I'm treating him and his girlfriend to dinner out and then they are coming back here for some cake and celebration. I'm going to do a big pictorial timeline for him like I did for Hailey tomorrow and will also include some pics from tonight.  Be sure and check back tomorrow to see Michael as a baby and a kid growing up as well as read a few poignant and (some painful) stories from his life. I got to looking through some of his photos here on the computer and ran across a couple that demanded to be compared. Wow what a difference a year can make!

 

Here's Michael a year ago with his skanky previous girlfriend who broke his heart in two!

 

 

 

Here's Michael this year with his new and MUCH IMPROVED girlfriend.

Sweet!

Hope everybody has an awesome Saturday! I've got TONS of stuff to do so I gotta get crackin!

Oh here's that giant weed I mentioned. It was about 2 1/2 feet tall!

 

 

**Long, important story and then lots of pictures**

Well, let me begin by saying to all of you don't ever take your family members for granted...don't ever get into the frame of mind that you will always have 'one more day' with them. I learned that lesson the hard way when my Dad suddenly passed away on a Thursday morning last summer. I almost got handed another hard lesson this past Sunday.

Sunday afternoon Hailey and I had gone to get her hair trimmed and then she was going to meet some friends at the mall while I finished up the last bit of my shopping. I got a phone call there in the hair salon that completely changed my perspective about Christmas. I learned that my son had been found unconscious in the middle of the road sometime during the night. He had been unresponsive and had to be intebated because he wasn't breathing well on his own. He was in the Trauma ICU. I was told that he was awake talking now and they had just removed the tube from his throat. I was asked to come there right away.

It's amazing how one simple phone call, just a few short words can COMPLETELY change your perspective.  I went from dreading the traffic I knew I would encounter at the mall and fretting over being able to find those last few things I needed to get to being afraid to allow myself to consider the fact that my son almost died lying in the middle of the street. It was just too much to even understand.

I had talked to him Friday night and he was fine and in good spirits. He called to confirm our plans for him to come over Sunday night and spend Christmas with us. We were to go to my Mom's house for Christmas Eve with the whole family.  I didn't talk to him Saturday. I was expecting him to come over in just a few short hours and instead I find him in the ICU.

The area that he lives in is very close to where we live and it is a very densely populated area and a very walkable area. It is centered around a college and a bustling club district. It is relatively safe but there are a couple of bad sections. He was out clubbing with friends and somehow got separated from them. Apparently he was walking home alone, a little intoxicated and was jumped from behind. He was robbed of his cash and his cell phone and beaten unconscious. He was left for dead in the middle of the street. Luckily someone driving by saw him and called 911. Had that person decided to just look the other way I would most likely be planning a funeral today. It had come a heavy rain that night. His clothes were soaking wet. The timeline is fuzzy and I will never know how long he laid in that street, unconscious and bleeding in the pouring rain. As a parent that is a horrible and chilling thought.

His phone records indicate that the last time he used his phone was around 10pm. He was finally able to give the hospital staff my phone number around 2pm the next day. The horrible people that did this to him began using his phone during the early morning hours downloading ringtones, games and surfing the internet. Scumbags! I could see from the phone records that other people were calling him: his roommate, his girlfriend, other friends. He was not getting any of those calls and nobody knew why at the time.

One of his eyes is completely swollen shut from a very hard punch. He has a big wound on the side of his head that looks like he was hit with some sort of stick or other object. He has various other bruises and contusions. His face is horribly swollen. Miraculously he has no permanent injury. By the time I arrived the hospital had already done a CT scan on his head and an opthamologist had already checked out his eyes for any damage. He needed to heal but he was going to be fine. Thank God!

After a while of observation the doctors gave him the OK to come home with me. He was extremely upset that the paramedics had cut his clothes off of him. He didn't understand why this was necessary. They gave him a set of scrubs to wear home.

He wasn't up to the hour drive to go to my Mom's house and really didn't want to go out in public. I didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone so we decided not to go. My sister and her clan went, ate, exchanged gifts with my Mom then packed us up some food, gathered up our gifts and brought the party to our house. In spite of Michael's condition we all had a really nice time.

I'm not going to post any of the close-up photos of my son's injuries out of respect for his privacy. But you can see how banged up he looks in some of the other pictures.

Hailey and I made goodies! Peanut butter fudge, sugar cookies with a thumbprint of raspberry jam and sausage balls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once everyone arrived it was a very festive atmosphere. That good, safe family feeling. Cameron wanted to make an 'Elf Yourself' of three of himself LOL. He and I did it together.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH CAMERON IN 3D!

After it was over he saw the little button that said "Share it with your friend". He told me he wanted to send it to his friend Stephen. I said "OK, what's his e-mail address?" Cameron said "How should I know, that's none of my business!" LOL! That kid cracks me up with some of the things he says.

 

 

**he was pretending to fall into the tree and wanted me to take a picture**

Everyone was hanging out and trying to not treat Michael any different than they normally do. He was trying but I know he wasn't really up to the visit.

 

 

Alex was definitely the life of the party! He has changed so much since Thanksgiving. He was all bright-eyed and couldn't stop staring at all the bright lights and colors. After a while it was just too much for him and he got a little cranky and hungry.

 

 

 

 

Finally we opened gifts! Everyone liked their gift and it went really well. I got an Angel and $50.00 from my Mom and my sister gave me a Rachel Ray cookbook. Yeah!

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas Eve 2007.