Good Bye, Uncle Jimmie

I just checked on here and the last post was August! So much has happened since then! Let me first start off by saying, the Goo Goo Doll concert Colleen and I were supposed to go to was cancelled! I was sooooo disappointed! But it couldn't be helped--the weather was horrible! I made it up to Iowa, and we took care of Denny's Dad's house. But when it came time for the concert, there were tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, the whole works. We did take the train to Chicago, but it was 4 hours late arriving--because of the storms. That should have been our first clue! But we trudged on. As soon as we arrived in Chicago and started walking toward our hotel--it was only a couple of blocks away--it started raining. And it didn't let up! The wind started blowing, lightening was stricking, etc. We finally decided to take a cab out to the pavallion, but the cabbie said he just got back from there, and the concert was cancelled. Horrors! It was rescheduled for 4 days later, but we couldn't make the connections, so I got my money back and will just have to wait for another time--if I'm not too old by then! :)

Well, the next to happen, was that I had surgery in Oct. Hernia surgery. I had been so sick. Even the night we were supposed to go to the concert, I was so sick, I don't honestly know how I would have gotten through the concert. So I spent the night in pure agony, and worried Colleen to death. I'm happy to report that the surgery went fantastically well, and I'm fine. I was so sick for so long, that I forgot what it felt like to feel good. But I feel so good that I put on 20 lbs., which was the last thing I needed to do! So now I have the pleasure of trying get that off plus just trying to lose weight in general. It's a never-ending battle!

The next thing to happen was almost the worst of things to happen. It's such a long story, but in a nutshell, our oldest granddaughter, Katie, 14, ended up going to juvenille detention for 2 weeks around the end of Oct. , first part of Nov. Denny and I were just sick. We couldn't see her or talk to her during that time. It was horrible. All I did was cry. My SIL Billy's dd, Samantha, and Katie had some tension between them. Two days in a row, Samantha hit Katie in the head and the face, and nothing happened to her. Katie did not fight back. Juvie was called and notified, but no response from them. After that, Katie was constantly harrassed in the halls, threatened, they tried to get her into the bathroom to beat her up, she was almost run over by Billy's son. He stopped about 2 feet in front of her. All these things were being done to her, and by this time she's getting pissed. Can anyone honestly blame her? Reports were made, but again, nothing was done to these kids. The threats kept coming, and I'm sure she said if one more thing happens, she's going to fight back and it won't be pretty. During all of this, her best friend turned on her and took Samantha's side, and it devastated Katie. So Katie told her she was just like her mother--she tears people apart. Can you believe that's what got her sent to juvie?! It made Samantha mad when Katie said that, and it made her want to fight, so she went to the principal and he called juvie and they took both of the girls! Un-friggin-believeable. THAT got her sent to juvie. She was charged with harassment. So why did nothing happen to Samantha for hitting Katie, but Katie makes a remark and off she goes. I'll never understand it. So tomorrow we go before the judge again on the harassment charges. I have no clue what will happen. Things have been pretty calm since they were released, but this guy can do anything he wants. It's a small town and county, and he's the only one to answer to. And he'd just as soon put anyone in jail as to look them. He's said so. So keep your fingers crossed that he doesn't decide to keep them for any reason and we get this all behind us on move on.

So inbetween all this, Libby got married. November 10. It was a small affair, but very nice. It's amazing what you can do on a budget! lol The lady that was going to make her cake bailed out on her, tho. Two weeks before the wedding, she said she didn't have time to do it. So Billy's mother made the cake. It sucked. It was ugly and dry. She was trying to help, but she shouldn't have taken on something she had never done before. Before I could even try to solve this one, she volunteered. What could Libby do. But on their first anniversary, I'm going to this little bakery and get them a strawberry cake. They're delicious, and maybe she can put the topper back on and take a pic and pretend! lol

So this brings us to December. My uncle passed away on Dec. 20th. He was the kindest, and sweetest man I'd ever known. He was married to my mom's oldest sister, who passed away 3-4 years ago. So Mom just kind of took care of Uncle Jim. She'd clean his house, buy his groceries, made and took him to dr. appointments. He was 82 when he died. He was starting to get very forgetful, was always misplacing stuff. I could really see him going downhill. But the last month or two he was having little proceedures done. Mom was seeing to it that he was getting an overhaul! lol He had a cancerous spot above his eye, and one on his ear. The eye surgery went fine, but the ear surgery was a problem, in that he messed up on his meds. He was only to stop taking the baby aspirin the day before surgery, but quit taking all meds 3 days before, and he had complications from that. He ended up with an infection and was in the hospital. And while there he had a heart attack, and passed away. He was very special to all of us and we'll all miss him.

I'm going to do my best to keep this going this time. I'll report on how things turned out with Katie's court date tomorrow, and I've got some scrapping stuff to share!