Back to the Future!

Remember when Michael J Fox is told he needs to go back to the future again..."it is not about you..It's Your Kids!"  Well, from what I have been through this past couple of months I think I would rather stick my head in the sand.

I used to think about how I would love to know what is down the road for me before I get there, you can be prepared and fix things right...but not anymore...let me take the bends in the road as they come!  17 years ago if I had, had any I-oda (southern word for any idea) what layed ahead for us with our youngest adopted son M, I would have said, "ummm, thanks for thinking so much of us, but we can't possibly handle this one." 

Life is tough enough day by day but throw in an off the charts kid like son M, and as daughter R said, "It is a miracle we are not on CSI."  Some people who adopt choose to try and send them back on a plane...but, we didn't think of that.  I know, I know what your thinking...and yes, we love him too much even with all that we have been through.. we continue to go through, and....we are ever hopeful that one day he will become the blessing Linda always said he will be someday!  Keep on praying for us Linda...never forget!!!  :)

So, I will attempt to give you the "man" version of my summer since the "venus" version is going to be way..way too long and complicated!  Let me get my calendar of notes...yes, I had to take notes it was that crazy!

Remember the July 19th 4 car pile up that son M was in and my roller coaster post...let me take it from there....and keep in mind I am still filling out forms for the insurance on the break-in all the while.  What I want to know is where did all these forms go?  Seems I created a thick court file all on my own for someone's desk...and the forms just kept coming...so aside from that here are my calendar notes:

Tues, July 20th...Work at quilt store teaching a week long Kids Kamp with 6 cute 9 to 12 year old excited little girls wanting to learn to make a quilt all on their own 12-5.

Thurs, July 22...daughter R calls me at work wanting to know what it means when your car lurches when it is supposed to change gears?  I say, "Ummm, sounds like you need a new car...since this one has been totaled for two years now."  So, I am not much help there, I guess...but it got her to thinking..only problem is she is in the middle of a temporary move back home for a few weeks between apartments.  Not the best time financially for a new/used car either..so I told her to start looking on Carmax.

Friday, July 23 Kids Kamp over and joy fills my heart!

Monday, July 26th..call dentist office again...daughter R's car behaved over the weekend but is acting up today!

Tuesday, July 27th...work at quilt shop or trying to work...on the phone with R helping her with car, and insurance info....can you spell S-T-R-E-S-S?  After dinner...help R move some stuff to our basement.

Wednesday, July 28....more on the phone with daughter R and her car...help R move some stuff again...

Thursday, July 29th...12:00 noon dental apts. for hubby and I...was not anxious since I always have beautiful teeth!  Not, this time of course...I have to have a crown that will cost me $500. and no one can see it since it is in the very back of my mouth....afternoon go to Carmax with daughter R to look at a car...we are there for a long while...have to go back tomorrow and I am a little worried, ok...a lot worried her car won't make it back tomorrow when the papers can be ready...they were buying her car for $1200...really!!  Oh, man...don't let it die now!   We are moving R's stuff every night down to the big stuff using hubbys truck now.

Friday, July 30th...11:00 am take M's car to be inspected at a Geico repair shop...there a long while...it is not totalled but close....dang!  We drive it back home...brakes are in need of work...still waiting on Geico to make a decision to cover the claim.   After work we go with R to finish her paper work at Carmax and to get her new car ....with me praying all the way that it will make it there still running.  We get to Carmax and she discovers she forgot the back seat she had taken out for the move....Yikes...turns out to be no problem...hours later she drives away with a new/used cute Cobalt....help R move more stuff.

Saturday, July 31st...work big sale at store all day....help R move some more stuff into our basement...which is now getting really packed!  Had to move some to her Aunt S's basement too....where did she gets so much stuff???

Monday, August 2nd. We put son M's car in the shop for brake work and 2 used front tires.  R is settled in to the guest room now, and she has left on a Fla vacation she has earned from work.

Tuesday, August 3rd  Work at quilt shop...get a call that M's car repairs will cost $425.  I want to wail does it ever end???  But, I say thanks and ask when we can come get it...

Wednesday, August 4th..work afternoon at the shop..driving home hubby J tells me that Geico left a message on the phone that our claim was denied!!!  What!!!  Want to cry but I can't since I have to see to drive....crying makes my eyes swell, and we have to go to court the next day for the break-in!  Go get son M's car out of the shop with the insurance money from  the beak-in that was just enough to pay for the repairs to his car.  No replacement Lap Top or X-Box 360 he bought just a few months ago...can you imagine son M's not too happy, but glad he has his car and freedom back.  We watch him drive away and we start to worry.... again...

  Put Geico on back burner of my mind to stew a while...I do not give up easy...J said forget it, you can't fight the big insurance company...I had taken pictures of M's car and tail lights...since they say their driver could not see the tail lights...I do not give up THAT easy...I have been told I have tenacity!  :)

Thursday, August 5th...go to court for arraingment of one of the juvenile's to break in our house...while in the little waiting room we get a call from youngest son M that he is in jail and needs us to pick him up!  Umm, not me I tell him...you should not have been there.  Shortly after we get the call to go into court room and the young theif from June 10th smugly pleads not guilty..I want to scream, "liar, I saw you in my house" but J is holding me down...not really but in spririt he is...he gives me "the look" ...so I sit quietly.  Leave the court house to go get son M's car out of the impound.  Leave son M in jail to think things over...he gets a cell phone from someone in the jail and begs us to come get him all the way home...sadness overwhelms me today! 

Friday, August 6th...son M still in jail...we are busy packing up daughter S to go to college next day...it is her weekend!  We are really happy for daughter S.  I am still thinking about Geico and the denied claim, plotting my plan as I walk through this weekend...night falls along with a gentle summer rain...planning dinner with daughter S...get a call from the jail that we have to come get son M since he is getting out on his minor charge.  Go get son M and miss eating with S...bummer!

Saturday, August 7th...leave out early on this oh so stinky hot humid summer day with J's Chevy truck and S's car loaded down with stuff ready to move into a closet sized dorm room with another young girl for college.  S and I take a wrong turn along the way into downtown Atlanta...I panic but my TomTom saves the day.   It is sooo hot but exciting moving S into her dorm.  We stay in town for the night swimming in motel pool and eating out.  This was a really fun Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday, August 8th...J and I come home happy and very tired!  It was a bad night with son M when we got back obviously he was feeling left out...but he did not want to go???

Monday, August 9th...time to deal with Geico...say my prayers...do hours of research on the internet for hope...do not find good news on other Geico claim stories.  I finally call the agent of denial with Geico...she is on vacation...thank God for miracles!  Call..leave message...call next number...leave message...call more numbers and keep leaving same "help" message...about 6 calls later I get a real person on the phone!

  I calmly and oh so very nicely expain our predictament we are in with the denial.  I ask if I can send pictures to show her M's car tail lights...she says yes and she will get back with me that afternoon.  In the mean time J wants to go crank up son T's jeep to let it run, since T is away for a while...where are the keys he asks me???

 I hate being keeper of the keys because I hide stuff and can never remember where I hid it.  I hide stuff from son M...remember son M still lives here.  I am exaused and looking for the keys is the straw that broke my little dam..I want to cry.  I can cry since it won't matter tomorrow...no wait, I can't cry now because I have to work...I cry anyway!  I even laid on the floor in my sewing room trying to remember where the keys are....(don't knock it..it works laying on the floor looking up)  but it didn't work this time...I cry some more...I keep tearing the house apart looking for those keys.  I am exaused mentally and physically!!!  I want to just crawl in a hole and dissappear for a while...but, the phone rings... it is afternoon  by this time...no keys yet...it is Geico!  The claim was accepted and revearsed so they are paying and sending a check in the mail by Friday of this week!  With tears in my eyes...I say thankyou!!!  But, I can't enjoy the joy of success because of the dang keys I can not find!  Oh, and the storage unit key is with his jeep key right!  No pressure here....I close the door to my sewing room for some quiet time and lay on the floor again looking up...I remember where the keys are!!  Almost bed time and I thank God above for making morning and night and that there is an end to each day!!!

Tuesday, August 10th...go to work with red swollen eyes...look and feel like death warmed over.

Wednesday, August 11th...go give blood...probably not a good idea in my physically run down state but I am determined to be a gold doner this year.

Thursday, August 12th..waiting on check...a peacefull day.

Friday, August 13th...go to meeting at quilt store..come home to Geico check in the mail.  I rush to the bank and almost pay off son M's car loan with the money...relief and sadness fills my heart...he is driving a hooptie now...life bites sometimes.

Tuesday, August 17th...work

Wednesday, August 18th...work

Thursday, August 19th...dental crowning day!  Ouch!!  I don't know which is worse the shots or the drilling noise that you can not feel but you hear in your mind!!!  :0  I am told I can not chew gum with the temp crown, or eat nuts, or chew crunchy stuff...REALLY!  What can I eat I ask???  Doc says our tongues are not smart enough to keep food on the left side of mouth...hmmm, I am thinking...how smart is my tongue??

Friday, August 20th...work at shop and I am a gum aholic...I chew gum on left side, eat a chip or two, and even crunch some nuts...feeling oh so smart tongued at this point till I bite my lip!

This is where the road of my life sort of smooths out somewhat and life picks up a normal pace....for a while anyway.  I go get my permant crown and it still fills like a fake tooth back there in my mouth.  Daughter R moved into her new apartment, only we did the move all on one really hot humid southern Saturday in September.  Well smooth for a few days anyway...

Friday, September 3th,  I work at quilt store....that afternoon Hubby J gets a call from son M at work that his car was knocking when he cranked it to leave work.  Why does stuff like this always happen on a Friday?  And, why does stuff like this always happen when I am at work???  We take oil and put in the car....nope still knocking...we go back with some gas thinking it is empty...nope still knocking.  We call in some experts for advice on engine knocks.  All the car people with the knowledge that we do not have, said chunk the car it is dead!  Ugh,  noooooo.....car sits at back of fast food lane for the Holiday weekend...I see a sign on the side of the road that says, "we buy junk cars for cash."  I call the number and Hugo says he can meet us there on Monday afternoon.  Hugo gives us $250. and hauls the car away....life bites sometimes...especially when son M had one more car payment to go. 

Life not only bites it can suck the joy right out of you if you dwell on the bad stuff that happens too much.  So, now J and I are back to driving youngest son M back and forth to work late at night....not fun...especially when we have to work the next day early!!!

Thursday, September 15th we went to the trial for the youngest theif that broke into our house, and me being a witness in the court room was the most heart thumping experience I have ever had in my life!  GUILTY!  Yep, the judge declared the young man guilty...so only one more trial to go for the break-in.  The other two young men involved pleaded not guilty too...really!

So, if you are still with me reading this oh so long sad tale of my Summer 2010...and your still awake, I bet you are glad I didn't give you the "venus" version of my story.!  hahahaaaa...time travel to the future...not for me...I am a one day at a time kind of girl forever more.  But, if I did time travel....I wouldn't go to the future I would to go back to the past and stay there forever...way back to when I was 6 years old and the worst thing to happen to me was loosing my skate key!  It just hit me....I  guess not much has changed...I am still loosing things....and crying!  Hahhaaaa...it is good to be alive at 55!