I will be the first to admit I love my garbage disposal.   Yes I said love, not like, not even overly fond of, but love love love.   Why such an obsession with a noisy and usually smelly appliance?   It shreds, eats and removes all traces of biodegradable material from my kitchen.   I don’t have to scrape plates into a near full garbage can and then shove the messy can back into the cabinet.   I can’t stand to have a garbage can sitting out in the k...

A thumping red white and blue basketball on the concrete drive is becoming the background music of our home.   My ten year old son spends most days now, as winter turns to spring, attempting to make every shot his skinny arms propel toward the basket.   In the last several days the thumping is more sporadic and even halting for long periods of time.   Every time I notice this phenomenon I look out to see the cause.   There standing in my drive is a well d...

My aunt (who is the only mother figure in my life) is dying of lung cancer. Link By the time most people find out they have lung cancer (because of symptoms), they have about 3-6 months to live. Peter Jennings was diagnosed and died within three months. Once it progresses past being “operable” the survival stats for surviving even one year go way down to almost nil. My aunt was diagnosed a year and a half ago. By all accounts, statistically and in the opinion of more than five onc...

I was totally unprepared and ignorant when my child was diagnosed with a speech delay. The research is ongoing, but the main school of thought believes it a genetic condition. Meaning, it is almost entirely inherited. A speech delay is just that….a delay in speaking. My son can say probably 20 words clearly while other “normal” kids can say well over 100. As with most kids having this delay, his receptive language is higher than normal. Meaning, he’s a very smart cookie. There just s...

Debbie, Debbie, Debbie. I must know at least six women named Debbie. In my life, certain names seem to re-emerge again and again; Robert, Kathy, Tracy to name a few. But Debbie, though the name constantly recurs in my life with new introductions, was one of a kind. "Kids meet your new step-mom," dad announced when I walked in from a hard day in 8th grade. I was shocked to see him home on a weekday before 7 p.m. Amazement replaced shock when my baby blues beheld the long...

I love my Aunt Shelby. When I was a little girl and lived with my dad in Marysville, he’d take us to see our aunt. She is his sister, the only girl out of 5 boys. They all grew up in Clay County, in a holler, pretty poor. My grandpa was a coal miner until a coal cart crushed his back. But Shelby married a young hillbilly at 17 and moved north to Cincinnati, or actually a town in Northern Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati. They didn’t have any money, she was pregnant and my uncle was ...

This is my last post tonight. It is late and there is a severe storm kicking up its heals outside. Don't want to get zapped! So, to the point, anyone have a security system? If so what brand, type, whatever. I am thinking about one since I am alone here with the kids most of the time. We're in a good area with low crime, but big deal. On some level I think its totally self-centered to believe for one instant someone would want to break into our house. I mean why ours and not the...