It has been a while

Since my last post, much has happened. I have lost the creative juices, or I have been participating in life's events.  Let's see... A deer hit my car on a Saturday night in August. At 10:30 at night I was picking my child up from a birthday party ( I know, right? It was a swimming party that was held in the evening.) We had zero gas in the tank, and I had just finished praying that St. Christopher would put in a special note for me to make it to the gas station before running out of gas. WHAM! The deer wrapped itself around the whole right side of my Toyota Matrix. I had to replace everything on that side and the windshield where his head made a hole. We did make it to the gas station, and the tow truck met us there; his wife gave us a ride home. The good people of Allstate furnished me a rental and paid for all damage to my car. The good people of Enterprise lent me an awesome Chevy Silverado to drive.

Officer Justin Sollohub was killed in the line of duty while patrolling the neighborhood behind my office. I learned then that our building does not have a lock-down procedure. The killer was at large, and cops from all over the state were looking for him. Helicopters and tanks were searching the area. Finally, a man was found and taken into custody. The following days were sad ones in the community. An entourage of law enforcement escorted his body home from the forensics lab in Huntsville. It was a sight to see. I am glad I was able to show my support. The Sollohub Family lost a gem that day. So did the people of Anniston and Jacksonville.

We started back to Religious Education School at my church. I have to devote a chunk of my spare time to developing lessons for my two girls, Reina and Mary, so I miss a lot of blogging time when that happens. I did some great lessons. One lesson on Baptism, I brought a baby doll and we pretended to baptize it in the classroom. The girls love to color. They participate fully in the lessons, but always ask , "When can we color?"

At the beginning of September we had Kids Market Receiving. This is where my sister and I spend the night in the parking lot of the Wildwood Shopping Center on Lakeshore and sleep in her Pilot in between roll call times. We show up for roll call, and we get a "low number" that designates our receiving time. The early you sign your contract, the earlier you are able to go shopping, the better selection you get. We have found that we like shopping on Thursday before the masses come on Saturday. We have a great selection that way, although the selection is still great on Saturday, we don't have to give one of our weekend days for an all day shopping trip.

The end of September brought Kids Market Shopping on Thursday night after work. You should definitely give this a try if you are expecting a baby or have little ones.  There are all kinds of gently used baby supplies and materials, as well as maternity clothes. There are clothes for children of all sizes and games and toys and even outside riding toys for a fraction of the cost of buying them brand new. I outfitted two children for a whole winter for around $340 dollars...I did say TWO children.

At the beginning of October, we got into full swing at the DMV with the new Alabama Immigration Act. Our lines in Anniston were not that of our counties to the west, but let me just say that the transactions do take a bit longer. People have a really hard time cooperating. All we ask for is a driver license number and an expiration date. You should see the comments we get. I admit the law is flawed in its original design, but it has merit. I welcome people to come here and live when they come from other countries, but by all means, do it by the rules and laws of the State. Don't try to beat the system. We have even German residents here who have been here for years and run businesses, but they are not citizens. The Great American Melting Pot, right? So MELT!!!

I lost one of my students this month in my RED class. Reina's family, orginally from Mexico, have been here 19 years, but never naturalized. They moved to Chicago. Reina is like a daughter to me. I will miss her. I pray for her safety in such a big city.

In our department at work, the Immigration Act has added more of a work load. There are four people who work in our department. One is an inspector who works out in the field, the other, JC, works the counter and takes a lot of the public load, the PeeWee and I run the back line. JC has just taken a job for a better work opportunity. The question around the rest of the office is "Who is going to fill JC's shoes?" I just say I am going to show up on Monday and hold on for the ride. I control nothing, and while I have little faith in anything good happening, I know that the group we are back there is a tight group that sticks together. If we go down, we will all go down fighting together.

The onset of October and all the extra stress has brought on sickness early in my house. Change of weather is cooler earlier, maybe? Anyway, have been down for two weeks with flu-like virus. Kevin got it next. The girls have been spared so far. Kevin is still sick and pushing through it, despite taking all weekend off last week. I am better, but I am faced with what happens to my house when Mommy is not well enough to keep it going. Because I have been sick, we have missed out on many fall activities that we would normally take part in during the month of October. We did have a fall festival at the school, which the kids enjoyed, and I am hopeful that we will attend one football game before the month is out, however the traditional rivalry is set for a Thursday night, so I doubt we can make it.

That is another thing that chaps my hide. Who ever heard of football on a Thursday night???  And to have one of the oldest rivalries in the county on a Thursday is ludicris. Worse yet, my alma mater was planning to have HOMECOMING on a Thursday night.  WHAT!!!!!??????  They did rethink the move, and changed it to Friday, the last game of the season, so you know those poor kids in their royal court dresses are going to freeze to death.

More to come from the BOX, and hopefully not so long in the waiting.