November 2

It has been a long time.. I know. Let's see. 

1. We are in the house. It has been a process, but the place looks great! I can't wait until Jeff is here to share it with me. 

2. I am not longer unemployed. I am working a a permanent-sub. It is a total oxymoron. You see, my old boss (principal) is now the executive director of the gifted and talented program for Metro schools.  The program is called ENCORE. She called me up and offered me this position. There are 28ish ENCORE teachers. They travel to all the different schools. If any of these teachers are out, then I am the sub. The kids will know me, and I sit in on some of the planning meetings, ect. The idea is to not have a total stranger every time someone is out. Now, if no one is gone, I work in the main office as a "secretary assistant". Ms. Vanessa is the secretary and is incredible! The job is a little tedious when I am in the office, I mostly do (now, use your best robot voice) D..A...T...A..........E....N....T.....R.......Y.  Yulk. The days drag a bit and I really look forward to the subbing days. I try to be grateful to have steady, non-stess work during these tough economic times. Jeff keeps reminding me that it is temporary, more exciting and stimulating employment is in my future. One of the benefits of the job is that it helps my mental state BIG TIME to have the structure of a work schedule. 

3. Thorn in my side: So, after the Jerry springer drama of the bob senior clan and acquiring this house, I thought that I would get a break from crazy for a while. Well, I was wrong. We have just one more neighbor that needs to be expunged from the street. Ronnie and Mary live across the way. They have 3 kids. I have always been a little weary of these neighbors. When we first moved in to 507 (we now live at 509), every time we pulled up to the house ronnie would come out to talk to us. I think everyone has probably experienced on of those 90/10 conversations..you know: You talk 10 percent of the time and he talks 90. Then you cant even pull away if you try. Ek! We started parking in the back and simply trying to avoid them completely.  Here is the info we have acquired from them in the 2 years we have lived on morton avenue. Neither of them have a job. They used to live in 507 (our old place) and got evicted for living to total filth. They now live with ronnie's father who has Alzheimer's. Ronnies uncle and his lover live next door. There kids are totally filthy with sagging diapers and scratches and scabs all over there skin. It is just really sad. You can hear them yelling at the kids. 

They have asked the other neighbors for money before and ronnie is the street gossip. He is always looking out his window. He would say things to me like "I saw you come home at 3 last night, what where you doing out so late?" Creepy. Boo Goo said she saw him peering in her windows once. Eww.

All this to say, I started feeling convicted for cutting them off. I started asking the question "what would Jesus do?" For real, Jesus would probably talk with them and help them. I thought maybe we could be a good influence on them. I started conversing more and even invited them in. I even helped Mary create a resume and apply for some jobs on my computer. 

I thought is was going good. It started getting out of control. I gave and inch and they took a mile! Now every time I pull up, all three kids are all over me like flies on crap. I don't even want to come home just so I don't have to face them. Then Ronnie asked me for money. I said no. But I offered to him that if he wanted to move the furniture from our old attic to our new attic, I would pay him sixty dollars. Well, a week later I went to look for Jeff's drill. It was gone. Along with all the rest of Jeff's power tools. You see, i moved all Jeff's tools into the attic myself. Ronnie and I are the only one's who would know they were there.  He totally stole our tools. Then i went to find a vacuum that i was selling on craigslist and it was gone. Then ,we had three buckets of change that we were saving and they were empty. Can you believe this? I was trying to help him out and he stole from us. I was so mad. I stormed over to his house and when he opened the door, I almost passed out from the strong pungent smell of urine. He adamantly denied it was him.."I couldn't do that to you guys" blah blah. Errr....

3. Jeff sent me the most beautiful flowers. I loved them. I was so sad that they had to die. Boo. 

I cant wait till he gets home. I am going to see him on November 10 and 11th. I am really excited for that. He is working really hard for us. I am proud of him and miss him alot. It gets lonely in a big house by yourself. 

Well, there is more but I will start with this.  I will try to post more often.