I can’t believe it has been over a month since I have posted a blog. It feels good to sit down and write another entry … and yet, I have been so insanely busy that I haven’t had a moment to even think about the blog, much less write it. Let me tell you what has happened in my life this past month …

My last entry showed you a photo of the used (but new to us) horse trailer my husband and I recently purchased. We traveled to Indiana to retrieve the trailer. Ten minutes after leaving the trailer lot, we stopped to get gas, and being unfamiliar with the (non-existent) turning radius of the trailer,... more

I haven’t posted much about Dora lately, but she is struggling. Her anger rules her decisions, in spite of awesome therapy sessions addressing her issues and providing her with better choices. Her therapist commented that she knows many smart kids who make dumb choices ... and currently Dora is one of them.

Dora continues to give nothing back, but wants to leap into Beth’s life just the same. My response is to explain to her it doesn’t work like that; if she chooses not act like a daughter, she can be a boarder, but she will have to contribute to the household... more

Greetings from Kansas, where there’s no place like home! After sloshing around in wet snow, ice and windy conditions in St. Paul, Minnesota last weekend, I arrived home last night in time to rock a couple of girls before bed. The roads were a bit scary around St. Paul, but not bad after I was halfway to Des Moines.

Steph and I had a wonderful time. We slept in on Saturday and then spent all afternoon at Caribou coffee, eating bagels, drinking lattes and doing our respective work. She read the Bible in ancient Greek; I struggled with the ATN database and wrote donor... more

Interestingly enough, my son and daughter continue to post on this site. One reader speculated several days ago—before the most recent posts by Anchulee and Tony—that they might actually enjoy the publicity. Regardless, their comments almost beg for responses …

Anchulee stated in a recent comment that I had told her once that she was my “guinea pig.” If one Googles “guinea pig”, one of the definitions... more

Well, I hardly know where to begin. Seems I never have a lack of blog material these days. I’m my usual comatose self at nearly 11 PM, aggravated by the fact that I was up with one of the dogs at 4 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep because of the horrible stomach issues I am still addressing. Tomorrow I’m calling the doc and getting a different antibiotic … I don’t think I can hang in there another five days with this one.

Steph and her boyfriend were here for the weekend, although they weren’t here on Thursday for Thanksgiving. My folks don’t leave until... more

Imagine my surprise to check in on my blog tonight and find a message from “Amy”, who used her real name, signed in and dressed me down in a comment. A previous blog sported another comment from “fearless” who sounds even more like my very disgruntled son, Tommy. Some of my family members are of the opinion that Tommy talked Amy into commenting. Who knows.

In “fearless’s” latest... more

It has been a busy day, as usual, but it was punctuated by my frequent checks of my last post to see what inspiring comments had been left. Who knew it would be such an interesting dialog?

I have read various readers’ theories about who "fearless" might be … and there is another possibility. I think this person who is so clearly quite unhappy with me might be my son, Tommy. Tommy has asked me not to write about him, and I haven’t. It was not particularly... more

Last night a friend and I went to Uno’s Pizzeria, mowed down a ‘Shroom pizza and then attended a Symphony Pops concert where the featured performers were four guys impersonating the Beatles. The crowd was almost all Baby Boomers or older. The Boomers were itchin’ to get rockin’ in the aisles, but we refrained. The show was called the Classical Mystery Tour and my friend Amy and I had a great time. (Sunbonnet Sue, see her... more

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kyle and Marie spent the weekend with us. Kyle is on the receiving end of communication from Amy, although he is admonished not to share some of what she tells him. She doesn’t want us to know the location of where she lives, but did tell him to tell us she is “safe” and she is living with a friend and the friend’s husband and their two-year-old son. She is apparently paying rent and contributing to grocery money. The location is... more

Both Kyle and Stephanie have checked in lately with Amy. Kyle called before any of us knew what was happening, and he was shocked at the abrupt and chilly reception he received. Of course, he was at that time clueless why Amy was responding in such a fashion, but it made more sense to him as the events of this past week unfolded.

Steph called Amy Monday night and the conversation went nowhere. Steph described Amy as "hard" all the way through the conversation. No surprise, I am painted as the major bad guy for interfering in Amy’s life, with a partial nod to my husband’s... more