Mercy & Ryan. This is a BIG deal. Mercy has always been afraid of Ryan for some reason. This Thanksgiving she cuddled up with him on the couch to watch Christmas cartoons. I had to get a picture. She says she is no longer "shy" of him.

Brandi & Little J

The guys hang in the garage watching football

All the important discussions occur here!!!

Welcome to the World of Womanhood

Thanksgiving Eve, Kelly, Mercy & Little JT spent the night at our house. Big JT had to work. This was Mercy primping for her Thanksgiving Day "party". This is my "Party Girl". When she woke up Thanksgiving morning she told me that she slept good with the curlers in her hair. She doesn't have Grandma's natural curly hair.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

This is my favorite Holiday. I love spending time with my family and stuffing our tummys. It is a day to remember our family members who are no longer with us and to rejoice and be thankful for all that the good Lord as given us.
It is also a day to relax before the Christmas holiday madness begins. I will not be shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

I was very busy on Thursday & Friday. I work for Peoplelink Staffing. My employees were the crew that cleared the stadium of snow for the game on Saturday. This was on the WNDU website. I am so proud of each and every one of them. They worked very hard. To bad they couldn't do much to change the outcome of the game.





It's one game day preparation they don't want to make a tradition at Notre Dame…a full stadium snow removal.

Friday more than one hundred people worked at Notre Dame's stadium to get ready for Saturday's game.

They are shoveling underneath the stands, spreading salt in the aisles, and clearing the field.

"It’s a big area but small places to work in, a lot of snow, as you can see it’s still coming down," says temp worker Greg Crew.

The last time it snowed during a game was in 1992 during the infamous “snow bowl.”

But many say they can't remember the last time there's been this heavy of a snowfall *before* a game.

"This is a real treat… probably my worst nightmare. Back when we saw the schedule for November 22 thought nah can't be... but it is what it is," explains Dan Brazo, Notre Dame’s Athtletics Facilities Manager.

Crews will be back in the stands Saturday morning to continue working. Notre Dame hired help from a temp agency for help plus the rugby team volunteered to help out also.

Company B Marines

As soon as I walked in the door last night, my mom informed me that JT had been over and told her he received a call from someone at the Marine Corp Reserve unit. They are being deployed to Iraq again after the 1st of the year. She said he told her that he was having a difficult time with the thought of his men going without him. She said he hasn't decided if he wanted to reenlist and go with them. I have no idea if it is that easy to do. I grabbed my phone and called him. He said "No" I am not going, tell Grandma to quit stirring the pot......
He so lucky he said that. 2 tours was plenty for this mom. I don't think I could handle another deployment.

A tear in my eye...

My dad passed away 3 years ago this coming January. The holidays just don't seem the same without him. My cousin Dianne took her son, Nick to have his Christmas 08 pictures taken at the Picture People in the mall. They have a Santa there that the kids can have their picture taken with. Dianne was amazed by this Santa. He looks exactly like my dad. Dad used to dress up as Santa on Christmas Eve and the little kids would get 1 present that night from Santa. Dianne couldn't believe how much he looked like her Uncle Marshall. She said when he came out dressed in regular clothes, he had a Notre Dame sweatshirt on, just like my dad. She felt that seeing this man as Santa was my dad's way of telling everyone that he is here with us during the holidays. I am going to schedule for Mercy & Jt to have their picture taken with him.

1st Love

As I left work on Friday, I decided to stop at the Phillips 66 station in Roseland to play a couple of lottery tickets I had in my purse. I went in and traded them in on a couple more tickets. I took the tickets out to my car to scratch them off. As I was scratching them off, I looked up at a Jeep Cherokee that I thought was my uncle. It wasn't and I kept playing my lottery tickets. I won a couple of bucks and decide to go back in and trade them for more tickets. As I was getting out of my car, the man from the Jeep was coming out of the station. He looked at me and said "Melody?" I looked at him, said yes, but I was trying to figure out who he was and how I knew him. He could tell I had no idea who he was. He came up to me and hugged me and said I am John Weller, do you remember when we were 15? I was shocked to say the least. He was my very 1st boyfriend.

It was 1974. I fell head over heads in love with that boy. We dated that summer then we broke up. We went out again when I was 18 for a short time when he was home from college. Then when I was 28 I called him in Florida and he came home for a weekend and spent some time with me. It did not matter how long we had been apart, whenever I would see him, my heart would do flip-flops and I would swoon over him. After that weekend I wrote to him and told him it would never work. He was living a totally different lifestyle than me. I was a single mom raising a young son. I couldn't just go and party when the mood struck me. I never heard from him again. I have often thought of him over the years.

He is now 49 years old. Still has his hair, but it is gray. I don't think he has ever been married. He was living the fast life in West Palm Beach Florida until about 10 years ago, when he moved back to Indiana. He said to me that he has seen me at lunch at Frank's Place with my "boyfriend"(Totally a fishing line). I told him that was "my husband". We chit chatted awhile and then he was gone.

I was amazed that my heart didn't do flip-flops, and I wasn't shaking on the inside. I didn't melt to butter any longer. He was still good looking, but looking so much older and you could see the years of partying has taken a toll on his body. I realize none of us look the same as we did when we were in our twenties. I was just happy that think I "looked" better than him.
It reminds me of the song by Garth Brooks. Thank God for unanswered prayers.

Where Did The Sun Go?

Ok, I am sitting here at my desk 10 minutes before 5:00 pm on Friday evening. I should be delighted that the weekend is only moments away. I take a look outside my window and let out a sigh, I wonder when I will see the sun again. I can handle the cold, it is the sunshine I miss during these long winter days. It seems as though the "perm-a-cloud" as arrived very early this year. I live for sunshine. So already I am counting down the days until spring.

Veterans Day

Yesterday was the 233rd Marine Corp Birthday. Happy Birthday Marines and Semper Fi.




Remember to thank our veterans today.

New week...

I am so glad last week is over. I had 4 people I know pass away. Friday was such an emotional day at my Aunt's funeral. My cousin had emailed everyone last week to ask if anyone would like to write our memories of Aunt Wilma for the minister to read at the service. I emailed her my memories. Then just before the service I find out from the minister that he wants me to read it myself. It took me awhile to read it because I was crying through the whole thing. My brother said he was fine while my cousin read hers, but when I started to cry, everyone started to cry. It was just so emotional. Growing up we spent almost every weekend at "The Cottage" she and my uncle owned. I have wonderful memories of her and my Uncle Bud. It was a very long day.
My sister Jackie decided she was going to spend the night with us. JT and Kelly called Friday evening and said they were bring the kids over to visit. They had stopped at Wal Mart on their way over and purchased food to make nachos and a Yahzee game. Just before we started to play our game, Kelly had given the kids their nachos. She asked little JT if he wanted to say the prayer, he of course said no, so Mercy said she would say the prayer. It was so cute. I don't remember the whole thing becuase I was laughing. She said "Dear God, thank you for this day, thank you for this food and God, Thank you for this "party". She is her Grandma's girl, a girl who loves a good party, even through the "party" only consisted of 7 people. I had given Little JT 2 ice cream bars and he wanted more. His mom said he had enough. I told her that he is use to getting more when she isn't there. She said how many to you give him? 5? She thought I would say no, only 3. I said no, 7. I thought she would die. We had such a nice evening. I hope my grandkids rememeber these moments with love when I am gone.

PRESIDENT OBAMA..........

I stayed awake until 1:00 this morning, I was so proud of our country. In my 48 years I never thought I would see a black president. I am excited to have been apart of history. For the first time in a long time, I am hopeful for the future of this nation. For those people who are afraid, I ask you why? We are a nation that will protect our interest and our system allows us to change our leaders if we are unhappy. It is time to come together and work as a nation to build a better future for our families, and a stronger America.

Difficult week

Last week was a difficult week. It started on Monday with the death of one of my clients. On Tuesday JT's uncle Eddie died of cancer, he was 47 years old. I use to work with Eddie at Big C Lumber, that was how John (JT's Dad)and I met. I was totally shocked.
On Saturday morning my aunt Wilma died. She was 87 years old. I have great memories of her and my uncle Bud. They owned a cottage and when I was growing up we spent almost every weekend there. Waking up to a cottage full of relatives, swimming, boating, fishing in the lake. Playing hide and seek, catching frogs. Life sure was simplier back then. I will always cherish those memories.
Then on Saturday afternoon my husband's friend, Roseland Police chief Craig Toner was killed by a drunk driver while he was out riding his motorcycle. Louie and Craig worked out together at the gym and they both hung out at Moondog's. When Louie went on 3rd shift, Craig also patroled Roseland at night. He had Louie program his personnal cell number into my cell, should I have an emergency in the middle of the night. He was a great guy.