Here we go again

It has been a while since the last time I've written. Life has a way of passing me by and before I know it I've gone through an entire month or more. I've been busy helping my daughter's girlfriend find an apartment as well as taking her to and from work. I have been busy planning my daughter's sixteenth birthday party, getting her permit, and she got a job. I've been trying to fit time in there for my boyfriend as well (thank you for being a patient understanding man).

My daughter started her junior year in high school and I found myself looking with longing at the school supplies I have not been able to purchase since she hit junior high. I didn't get to purchase one cute notebook or folder, no colorful trapper keepers, and no elmers glue for god sake! I feel I am being deprived of my beloved new crayola crayons! Who here reading this has not gotten a thrill from a new box of crayons? I ask even the toughest of the crowd to not admit to enjoying new pencils freshly sharpened. Okay, maybe I am the only person I know who gets excited over these things, but it doesn't make me odd...just unique.

My daughter's girlfriend graduated this past May. She moved in with us in July due to not having any housing and a way to work. She is such a nice young woman I was not about to turn her away to have a good kid fall through the cracks of the system. She walks to work when I am at work. It takes her two and a half hours to walk from our home to her job. She is working two jobs and she is dedicated and hard working. I ask you...how many young people do you know will walk in the heat or rain two and a half hours to get to work. So she has been saving her money (no trips to the money sucking Wal-mart!) and we went apartment hunting for the past two weeks now that she has enough saved for deposit and rent. We looked at some serious dives in her price range. One attic apartment was so depressing and dark and cramped that I thought the spiders must have committed suicide. Don't get me wrong...dark would suit my daughter who has her room pitch black throughout the day, but the windows were at floor level and the bath tub was in a closet. I took one look at this apartment and thought no way! I'd rather she come home with us than live here. We finally found the perfect apartment! Nice old neighborhood, bright and cheerful with tall windows, lovely woodwork, and a balcony. She is within walking distance to the grocery store, Laundromat, bakery and shoe store (perfect!). We are painting this weekend and moving her in. She is excited and scared. On her own for the first time. Eighteen and paying her own rent and bills. Welcome to adulthood! I know she will be just fine and I am still here to help her. She is right on my way home from work and if she needed me for something I could be there.

My son and his wife will be welcoming their little baby girl into the world any day now. My son can hardly control himself, he is jumping up and down in anticipation of the birth of his child. Daily he calls (nothing new he always calls daily...multiple times) and informs me of the countdown to her birth. He is like a kid at Christmas who makes the paper chain to tear off one link a day until Christmas Eve. I told him he needs to calm down before he has a heartattack! I'm excited too! I will get to buy cute girlie clothes for her, do her hair and some day when she goes to kindergarten I will buy her crayola crayons.

Life is good. Who could ask for anything more than a roof over their head, warmth from the cold and new crayons.