Saturday, February 18, 2006

Guest Editor's Pick of the Week!

I was very pleasantly surprised to receive an Email from Dornbrau letting me know that she has been chosen as a Journals Guest Editor for this week.  The real shock was learning that she has chosen "Dock Lines..." as one of the five featured journals for this week.  Thank you, Dorn! 

To go and see her entry as Guest editor, click on this link: 

HI WORLD, ITS ME... THIS WEEK'S GUEST EDITOR!

I encourage you all to go and read about the other journals she has chosen to highlight this week.  I am flattered to be included in this fine company of journals.  Once again, Dorn, thank you!

Thursday, February 16, 2006

A Birthday Party

Right off the bat, let me share with you that Bill, mentioned in an earlier post, did indeed come by my dock shack a week from the day he had the accident.  Bill looked healthier than ever and made good on his promise to give me a big hug!  The doctors have said that he has had a complete recovery.

 

Our days around the house have been filled with many sounds since Christmas.  Happy sounds, serious sounds, mischievous sounds, the sounds of a young boy that reached age seven yesterday.  I’ll have more on the birthday celebrations in a bit. 

 

It has been quite an experience for our household to serve as a permanent home for a little boy for these last few months.  In that amount of time there has been a lot of bonding and shared experiences.  The weekly bike rides that Trenton and I take have become a staple of our lives and will be so missed when Trenton rejoins his mom and dad.

 

That is what I am coming to now.  On Saturday, March25, Trenton will board a flight to Oregon to join Trace and Danielle.  I am not happy abo

ut this, but I have no say, in my humble opinion, it would be wiser to let him finish out the school year here and send him to join the others in Oregon at the end of the school term.  Trace and Danielle say absolutely not!  They do not want to be away from him for that long.

 

Trace has taken a job with a fellow he’d worked with in the past and has rented a house and, together with Danielle, has made it ready to receive Trenton.  Plane tickets have been bought and an escorted flight has been arranged for the little guy to get there.

 

I have some problems with all of this because the two of them need professional help due to their addiction to controlled substances.  All of the promises to go to counseling and drug rehab have fallen by the wayside and they feel they are ready to accept the responsibility of raising their son once more.  I have heard this as though it was a broken record and I am helpless.  Trace is not my son, but my stepson.  He is not my flesh and blood and since I am not his father, I have no say in how he leads his life. 

 

I will not go to war with my wife over this issue, our relationship and the feelings we share are too dear to me to risk.  It is her opinion that we must bow to the wishes of Trenton’s parents and return him when they request it.  Paulette assures me she will keep a pulse on the situation in Oregon and call Family Services at even the least hint of impropriety on the part of Trenton’s parents. 

 

We have been teaching Trenton our phone number and making sure he has it memorized and knows how to dial us long distance collect.  He has promised to call if things are still the same with his parents.  It seems to me to be too big of a burden to thrust into the hands of a seven year old.  As Trenton steps on that plane we will be praying that God has a good life planned for that little boy.

 

Now, on to the celebrations!  Trenton did not want a big party, just the four of us Paulette, Aunt Sandy, Trenton and me.  He was allowed to choose the meal and pizza was his meal of choice to be followed by Cheesecake and Tin Roof ice cream.  He chose cheesecake on his own with no coaching from Grandpa Sam, honest!  He remembered the Cheesecake variety wheel Grandpa Sam was treated to on his last birthday and wanted the same! 

 

The pictures tell the rest of the story, and I’ll add a little line with each one to keep us all on the same page.  Oh, I deferred to Aunt Sandy’s wishes and took no pictures with her in the frame.

 

Let the Party Begin!

 

This Group looks ready for a good time!  (Paulette, Trenton & Sam)

Trenton Reading The Cards

Grandma lending a hand with the reading

Emmie sizing up the scene before deciding the party was for her!

Trenton showing off the spoils

Give a kitty a wad of paper and she is in heaven!

Emmie was so happy she got a box for Trenton's Birtday!

Paulette entertaining a party guest.

Emmie plays with the birthday boy!

Trenton chose the cheesecake wheel all on his own, no influence from Gandpa, honest!

Add a little Tin Roof ice cream and now we are talking party!

The Birthday Boy enjoying the spoils!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Success!

My thanks to all of you who commented on my last post, and a very special thanks to all who sent tips on how to get all of my "Other Journals"  Into the space to the right of this text in my "Other Journals" section.  As you may notice, I have a single link there now.  Click on it and it takes you to a page that contains the links for all of the journals I wanted to include.

I could not have done this alone and I thank you all for your support and suggestions.  Wil provided the hints on the method I finally chose to display this information.  Thanks for your help, Wil, it worked!

Well, now that that is done and no longer a burden, I must hold true on my promise to write a newsy post and catch you all up on the happenings around here.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 2-15-06) is Trenton's 7th birthday.  I want to wait 'til that's over then I'll share how it turned out with all of you.  Who knows?  I might even be able to post a Picture or two of the celebration.  I know that it's rare these days for me to post twice in one week, but this will merit the extra effort, I am sure. 

There you have it.  I've promised a second post, probably Thursday evening to bring you up to date and share a bit of the celebration.  You now have it in writing, LOL!  See Y'all then! 

In the meantime, Happy Valentines Day!

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

I Give Up!

To those that got an alert about a new entry here and came by only to find symbols and scripting signs, I apologize! 

I have been trying to update the "About Me" section of my journal.  I have put this chore off way too long and have spent quite a bit of time going though all the links I keep in my favorites area checking to see if they are still viable links and that the authors are still writing.

I've been promising myself, as well as a few others, that I would update the "Other Journals" section here for quite some time.  This week I set out to do it.  It took hours going to every journal and compiling the list of 147 journals I am trying to display.

Right off the bat I found out that the "Other Journals" space that AOL provides us can store only 50 links.  I've seen other journals were they put a link to a page that has their entire lists when the lists are over fifty. 

I thought when I finally learned how to manipulate pictures in my journal I had mastered this domain.  Hah!  Fat Chance.  Yes, I have the knowledge and ability to insert links in this space and have them work, but I give up trying to figure out how to show 147 links on one page.

Ok, any of You out there who has figured out how to do this, please Email me with some hints or instructions.  I've wasted three days trying to do it the way I thought it should work with no luck.

I want to write a nice newsy entry, but I've promised myself I will not post again until I can list all the wonderful journals I visit.  Help!  Please?