You have all seen, or at least heard, about that show "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition" haven't you? What follows is a story of a small community church that took on such a project.

My mother has a friend that lives on the other side of our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is a square with little roads running through it. As kids we were able to ride our bikes all through it, drop them in front yards and play with whichever kid was home. It had a little store where we could buy penny candy and it had a butcher counter in the back. The owner knew all of us kids by name. Across the street from that store lives my mom's friend, Carol. Built on to one end of her house is a beauty shop...a small one. But she supported her family with that shop.

Carol's husband Floyd was a 'lay about' (as my grandmother Smith called him). He hardly EVER worked. He came up with lots of excuses. The real reason was that he had a permanent bend in his elbow. You know, from tipping beers too often. They had a small house with an unfinished upstairs. Floyd had 'attempted' to finish it. He built the most awful stairs, put up the wall frames to separate it into bedrooms, and ran wiring and outlets. Never put the drywall up and the outlets were just screwed to the framing. There was a landing that looked out over the livingroom below but there was no railing...it was all open.

Carol had makeshift drain pipes running from her sinks...even the ones in her beauty shop. She didn't have any overhead lights cuz Floyd said the wiring couldn't be run for them.

One day, Floyd found some ambition and got a job with the Post Office in town. He was making money and Carol could finally get some relief. The 3 kids were in their teens. The postal workers at our town branch were notorious for bar AND bed hopping (one reason it took us so long to get our mail!). Floyd, of course, thot it was the best job he had ever had! Wonder why?

Remember a few posts ago I was telling about the house that blew up and damaged a lot of the houses in the neighborhood? Well, it so happens that one of the houses it damaged, across the street from it, was owned by a fairly well to do man in town. He owned lots of real estate and convenience stores...and he was dying very quickly of cancer. His wife was younger than he and they had some young kids. They got quite the settlement for the damage which made him much richer...then he died. His body wasn't cold in the ground and his wife was out trolling. Floyd found her. They found each other. He packed his bags and moved in. Bye Carol and...what kids?

Carol struggled to finish raising her kids...they denounced their father. They got part-time jobs and contributed to the household budget. Really good kids!

Anyway...the kids are all grown, married, on their own. They gave her some money for a week long vacation out west to visit some family. While she was gone, members of her church took those seven days to descend upon her house. They worked in shifts, day and night for seven days. They put in new flooring in the bathrooms, the kitchen, finished the upstairs with walls, paint, wiring, rails, built new stairs, fixed her plumbing in the house and her beauty shop. They painted and caulked and wired in new overhead lighting in her shop. When she came home...it was a total transformation! She was overwhelmed.

Floyd may be living in a big house off of some other man's money. But Carol is the rich one.

I have lots of stuff in me head that I am going to attempt to unload.

As a disclaimer to anything here that may offend anyone...I do not mean to insult...I've had a 4 day migraine and have just loaded up with more pain killers. So...that said...you have been warned.

My oldest sister got a new puppy. I don't know what she has named it yet. It is a pug:


A face only a mother could love. He's so ugly he's cute!


To me pugs look like they were running after a car too fast and when the car stopped, they slammed into it with their face, shoving the nose in and the eyes popped out. And that tail...no matter how much you try to straighten it, it just springs right back into place.

My youngest sister and her husband, Matt, have a Sheba Inu. It is a Japanese breed. Oddly enuff, it has squinty eyes. I looked at it and told him that you could tell it was Japanese cuz of the eyes. He laughed. Then I said, You know why Japanese have squinty eyes don't you?" He shook his head and gave me that look like, 'here it comes'. I said, "Their eyes used to NOT squint until we dropped those bombs then they went (I did the squint/grimace) and they've been that way every since." He tried real hard to give me a disapproving look, but he laughed anyway. (I told you...I am not trying to insult anyone...it is humor)

I got to have a nice long conversation with my brother. It was quite enlightening. My brother has always kept his business to himself but as he is getting older, he hasn't been quite so reluctant to share. Out of all of us, I am the one sister he has talked to the most. So, I took a cup of coffee into his room, sat down and said, "So, what's new? And what happened to Scarey Sherri?" That is a whole nasty story. She left him cuz she said he didn't make enuff money for her. She is such a beotch that he said that one of the guys she tried to latch onto after leaving him has filed a restraining order against her. She has two twin boys from a previous marriage...they are the same age as my son...and they still call Scott every once in a while and ask him if he can tell their mom that she is f***** nuts. He says that they won't ever tell him what she has done to them but they will ask him about seeing them. Their father moved on with another family. The joke is on Sherri...Scott got a new position and promotion and he's making quite a lot of cash now. I told Scott I hope he isn't dumb enuff to take her back. He just laughed and said, "I dont' think so. She was spreading rumors around town about me...ppl got mad at her and she had to change her phone number and quit her bartending job...she's hiding out." Scott has a lot of friends that are very loyal to him. He doesn't approve of what they do, but, as he says, he has no control over them. I am just glad to see her gone. Whew.

I was visiting my parents this weekend. In NE Ohio. Not much up there. 'cept Methlabs...it is the crossroads of Routes 11 and 90...Cleveland and Youngstown.

When I was growing up there, anything illegal was kept under ground...pretty much. Until the big house at the westend blew up becuz of illegal fireworks manufacturing and ruined most of the neighborhood. Killed the poor widow woman next to it. Then the various mafia factions came out of the woodwork...to lay blame. It was all followed by 'mysterious' deaths. And, NO, I am NOT making it up. Most of my friends were Italian OR Polish. They filled me in on what was happening.

It was all pretty boring and bucolic in that corner of Ohio when I was growing up. Not anymore...and I can't get used to it.

Saturday I took my daughter to the Ashtabula Mall to find her some dress shoes for the mother-daughter banquet. I bought my mom a cake, and my daughter wheedled some other things out of me...really had to twist my arm!

I wanted to go in this one store and she wanted to drink her soda so I told her to stand outside the door of the store. The mall wasn't too busy and I never thought of it being a problem. After all, it was Ashtabula Ohio...not some big city.

But she came running in the store...just as she did I had heard some kid outside yelling...go get that bag! Go in that store and grab that bag! Bethany said there was a gang of them that were standing there discussing how they were going to snatch my bags! I turned and looked but they were gone. She said that they saw her come in here and they left. So I told the sales clerk and she notified security. We managed to make it through the mall and back to the van without problems. But I also noticed the small groups of boys in various baggies and colored bandanas.

I shiver to think that I left my daughter outside that store!!! I have NEVER let her out of my reach when we've gone shopping...or anywhere! I refuse to go to the Dayton Mall becuz I have always been afraid of shootings, muggings, etc. And there I was in Ashtabula, at the Mall in the middle of nowhere, worrying about making it back to my van unharmed! The irony was not lost on me.

I have been thinking about that off and on today...and thanking God that nothing happened to my daughter.

******No Saturday Night Jams...I'm gonna be out of town******

There was something I was reminded of today...do NOT know why I even thot of this. I was telling someone else about this and it brought a giggle to me.

Well, actually, we were talking about all the reasons I decided NOT to live in Florida (made it there for 3 whole months at a time once! Woohoo!). #1) Hurricanes; #2) Santa Clause in a speedo; #3) things like the fires; #4) alligators; #5) girls being dragged off into the middle of orange groves, becuz of the easy access roads, and raped and murdered; #6) the snowbirds. I SWEAR that the elderly ppl that go down there for the winter do NOT stop at the red lights! I figure they are thinking that they don't have very long left so they are not going to waste what time they have waiting for the light to turn green!

My father's parents owned a place in an elderly ppl mobile home park. Granpa Ray was the shuffle board champ--with trophies to prove it---and Grandma could make more things out of shells that I think anyone could possible imagine. They would be gone November-April or May. We breathed a sigh of relief when they left...and started making out calendars for who would answer the phone when they got back.

My Grandpa Ray was the kind that was in bed AND asleep by 9 p.m. He awoke with the sun. Our phone would ring EVERY freakin' morning at 8 a.m. My oldest sister and I would always open one eye and see which one was going to move.

When you answered the phone....there was that voice..."YEAAAAHHHHH! What's yer dad doin'?" When the phone rang we would look at each other and say, "YYYEEEEAAAAAHHHH! Your turn!" My two younger siblings never bothered.

My Grandpa Ray died about 20 years ago. It was not too many years ago that I noticed if I answered the phone and it was my dad he would say, "YeAAAHHHH! What's the weather like there?" or something else after the Yeah...but it always started with a Yeah. I pointed it out to him one day cuz he caught me early in the morning and I couldn't stop the giggle. I had to tell him why I giggled. I have caught him a couple of times start to do that and I mock him with, "YEAAAHHHH! Grandpa!" He will turn red and start to laugh.

I overheard my brother doing that on the phone one day. I asked my friend if this was something that they were just born with. My friend said, "It's the 'Y' chromosome." Evidently. 'Y' is for "YEAAAAAHHHH!!!"

Are there places/things in your life that you avoid? Even when you KNOW there is no reason to avoid them? Even when it seems to be something that you know is good for you?

I sit here this morning feeling the anxiety rising in me becuz I have to go online and run off a bank statement...and...gulp...balance the check book. I have put it off for almost 2 months!!!! It isn't like I never had a clue what was going on. I would pull the checking acct. up every once in a while and make sure about how much money there was. I always get surprised becuz I expect there to be next to nothing. It is that thought that keeps me from spending anything.

There is NO REASON for me to avoid this! I should balance it at the beginning of each week, or the end, BUT I put it off...avoid it. It stems from past problems with my marital relationship and having to scramble to cover payments becuz...well...never mind. Not going there anymore. Does no good...trying to let go of past events and deal with my present and future.

Having those past events haunt my brain is another cause of my anxiety. I think once I learn to let go, I will learn to control. I can finally breathe normally again.

In the case of balancing the check book...I just hope that someday I can do it without just about hyperventilating!